Dragon Heart
by TheXGrayXLady
Summary: Thousands of years ago, the Celestial Dragons promised their powers to mortals. Now with the fate of the world in the balance, the Xiaolin Warriors must venture into the spirit world to ask for their help. Sequel to Sky Heart. Pairings: Raikim. -On Hiatus. If you want something similar, please check out Across the Universe or any number of my wonderful fics!-
1. Prologue

**So, you've put up with Sky Heart. You want more of this? Alright. Challenge accepted. I'll give you something almost decent in response. Wow. People actually want to know what happens in Croctosharkasaurus 17? Oy vey. Now I have to come up with an ending for that nonsense...ummm...in true B movie fashion, Sylvia's baby is Crocky's. However, Damian loves it like it was his own daughter. The physicist couple Scott and Adriana come up with a method to create new continents in seconds and the humans recreate civilization and get rid of Crocky for good. Or did they? **

**Thanks go out to all who reviewed for me on Sky Heart. All the good things and constructive criticism have made me a better writer. BTW, I can't afford good virtual chocolate, so it was whatever was on discount at Rite Aid. Still pretty good though. I apologize in advance for this crappy prologue.  
**

**Disclaimer: As in Sky Heart, I will own nothing until the fetal pig in a jar leaves Grissom's office.**

**_Prologue_  
**

"I don't think this is a good idea. The elder monks said not to," the larger boy said, rebalancing a vase on its shelf after almost knocking it over.

"Come on. Stop being such a stick in the mud. Dashi said not to listen to them and you know what Min says: "Read whatever you want. Just don't bother me with it,"" the black haired boy said, imitating his mentor's strange accent and moving scrolls out of the way. He didn't agree with his friend's assessment. Both of the older dragons rarely listened to the elder monks.

"That doesn't mean we should just go into the restricted scrolls. Who knows what's in there. We could get turned into toads or something," he said, trying to follow his more adventurous companion through piled scrolls.

"That's still better than evening meditation. Besides, our mentors can make an antidote if we do," he said, examining an old, tattered scroll. "Anubis I've got it!" Guan shook his head. His friend had taken to using foreign phrases he heard from his mentor, normally in far different situations.

"What is it?" He asked, peering over Chase's shoulder, his curiosity at least slightly piqued.

"No idea. It says "Celestial Dragons" on the side though," Chase said, shrugging. "Hey, it's in the restricted scrolls and it looks more interesting than "Twenty Recipes for Goat," it's gotta be good."

"Why is "Twenty Recipes for Goat" even back here anyway?" Guan asked, trying to read over his friend's shoulder. "Stop moving you spaz. I can't tell what we're reading."

"We're reading? Reading this is breaking one of your precious rules, so we're not reading it. I am," he explained, deliberately moving his head in front of Guan's. "You can either beg or leave."

"Move over you airhead. We're breaking enough rules, what's one more," he said. Chase moved his head over, clearly pleased that the other student had decided to come to the dark side.

"So the simpleton has seen the light," he said, proud to have corrupted the stronger monk. "Now, let's see if this has any cool spells." He unrolled the yellowed scroll and the two monks began to read.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

Long ago, when the earth was still young, there was a great power left over from the creation of the universe. The creatures that inhabited the fledgling planet were unaware of the great force existing amongst them, but not interfering. However, since they were a species especially receptive to the world around them, the noble race of dragons became the first to notice the great magic.

The magic would forever change the species. Eventually, four dragons were deemed worthy to rule over the elements, but only within the laws of magic.

Gaia, a patient, wise mother dragon from the deep forests was given power over the Earth. Ignatius, a passionate, lively draconian prince from the sun-scorched deserts was given power over Fire. Shui, an adaptive, just warrior from the northern oceans received control over the water. Lastly, Tempestra, a clever, playful young dragoness from the high mountains was given dominion over the winds.

In the beginning, they used their powers to maintain the balance between good and evil. They only interfered with the world when it was absolutely necessary. It was only a matter of time until everything would change.

They began bickering amongst themselves and tried to constantly out compete each other. They started to use their powers for their own gain rather than for balance. Tremors shook the earth to its very core, the seas were plagued by maelstroms, fire rained down from above, storms blew in from nowhere and destroyed everything in their paths.

The once impartial dragons became consumed by their petty power struggles and became shells of their former selves. The first humans soon tired of their destructive behavior and four of the bravest amongst them chose to go forth and combat the beasts.

The first journeyed to the deep forest and issued a challenge to the great earth dragon, relying on her sense of honor. If she could defeat him in combat, he would submit himself to her will. He waited outside Gaia's lair for thirty days and thirty nights, and finally, the earth mother emerged from her den to accept his challenge, coated head to tail in an impenetrable armor of stone. He noticed however that she was greatly slowed by the heavy stone covering her body and so he ran from the dragon. Gaia was patient though and knew that her quarry would soon tire as he did not possess her great strength and endurance, so she followed, always just out of sight.

The second man walked day and night until he came to Ignatius's desert home. He possessed an object of great power that would allow him to conjure up magnificent illusions. Knowing the lustful nature of the ruler of fire, he used the amulet to create a mirage of an exceptionally lovely dragoness. When the radiant dragon emerged over the dunes to court his new paramour, he flew into a rage to discover he had been tricked. The dragon spat fire at the fleeing man and continued to pursue him until long after they left the desert.

The third, this time a woman, bought passage on a merchant vessel laden with gold and jewels en route to a far off land knowing Shui's greed. On the journey, the little boat encountered massive waves that threatened to drown everyone on board. The third was however one of the very first witches and she used her magic to keep the boat afloat during the voyage. Furious that he was cheated of his quarry, the water serpent emerged from the depths and chased after the green-eyed lady.

The fourth woman went to the mountains where Tempestra was waiting. The woman didn't possess immense strength, magic items, or powers of her own. However, she was very intelligent. She asked the youngest dragon to play a simple game with her. The storm dragon said yes and they began to ask each other riddles. The questions tested the limits of their knowledge and creativity, but in the end, the mortal woman won. The young dragon, furious that she loose to a mere mortal, followed the woman on a long hunt throughout the world.

After what seemed like an eternity, the four humans met again in the middle of a large field, their pursuers close behind. However, once the dragons caught sight of each other, the humans were forgotten. The dragons began to fight each other, screeching accusations of sending human spies against each other.

Their battle raged on for a full year, only to end when they had exhausted each other's power and strength. That was when the humans they hunted struck. The first man lifted each dragon up and placed them into an inescapable magic cage crafted by the second. The witch put a spell on them that would drain them of their powers until they complied with one request. The last woman gave them their charge. They would have to give their powers to four humans or else remain in the cage, powerless for all eternity.

They complied, but eager to deny the humans who trapped them their powers, they never said when they would give their gift. The second they said yes, the bars on the cage snapped open and the spell was broken. The mortals instantly realized that they had been cheated. Before they could escape, the humans merged their chi energies to open a portal to the spirit realm right in the path of the self-satisfied beasts.

They sealed this portal quickly and promised that the deceptive beasts would never be free again. The high council of magi –founded by three of the four who imprisoned the dragons- built their complex around the site of the portal and crafted a door between realms. During their imprisonment, the dragons further developed their powers and upon watching the outside world, realized what damage they had caused to both the sides of good and evil. They decided to again become forces of balance.

The impatient Tempestra gave her powers first. The swift being flying over the desert sands was unaware of the new energy flowing through her body, she was so caught up in her own mourning. Thousands of years later, Ignatius and Gaia gave their abilities to an old couple they deemed worthy. Shui gave his powers last. The young boy the old monks looked after was destined for greatness from birth. Perfect for elemental powers.

The four honorary dragons came together and began their quest for balance. With the original elementals' blessing, they ventured into the spirit realm to receive their secondary powers. However, despite their change of heart, the dragons still desire their chance at freedom. And so, they wait. Just beyond a simple magic door, they wait for their release.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

"Wow," Guan whispered, awed that they had found the story of how the Xiaolin Dragons came to be.

"Wow is right. They didn't even give the spell for making someone do your biding," Chase said, clearly miffed. Guan winced and thought that maybe his friend should go to evening meditation more often.

"Maybe that is because young dragons such as you are not yet prepared for such magics," an ominous voice said from just behind them. The boys jumped in surprise.

"Master Zed, Min just asked us to get a scroll from in here. Something about a teleportation spell…" Chase said, trying to sound confident. The old monk looked at him, trying to decide between punishing them and making sure that the dragon of the Wind wasn't up to something again.

"Be that as it may, you two are not allowed in here. These are restricted scrolls for a reason," he said. "Come along now. The great hall needs to be scrubbed and there are new small brushes to be broken in."

Guan followed him with his head hung in shame. "I told you we would get caught," he said. "Next time we skip meditation we're practicing fight moves." No matter how difficult practicing could be, it was infinitely better than scrubbing the great hall. At least Dashi would be pleased though. He had been encouraging the younger monk to rebel a little. This was about as rebellious as he could get.

**Alright. First bit of this over. I promise you that it will get better. Please, tell me what you think of this so I can get a better feel for what I should do with the rest of the story. You will get cookies if you do. Chocolate chip. :)**


	2. Chiaroscuro

**Hi everybody! I just want to say, no. I should not write textbooks. A teacher once described my nonfiction writing as: "More informational than a textbook, but a thousand times more boring." I tend to throw informtion everywhere, but there's no flavor to it. I would probably make ancient greek battles sound like an economics discussion. S.S. Mahana, thank you so much for appreciating Guan. Between this and The Way We Were I went through like four personalities before deciding on one I liked. I think I made Chase dragon of Fire, Dashi dragon of Water, Guan was dragon of the Earth, and Minerva was dragon of the Wind. Don't worry though, old elements aren't really that relevant to this story. Thanks also to XSrules95 and Amuletspade. Shui took forever to name. And thank you for defending my characterization choices. And now for something totally different (and not CSI or House related! Shocker I know)...**

**Disclaimer: I own Xiaolin Showdown when Raimundo is the Pope. **

_**Chiarscuro**_

"Why do we put up with this?" Kimiko asked, slapping herself in the face.

"Because Master Fung wills it so," Omi replied, looking and sounding equally exasperated. "I am not one to argue with Master Fung, but I doubt he could have foreseen this."

"Worst idea since parsnip, bologna, and jelly sandwiches," Clay said, pulling his hat down over his face.

"It's still better than the obstacle course," Rai added. They still hadn't seen the obstacle course that he referred to with a mix of fear, loathing, and respect. Kimiko had the feeling that they didn't want to.

"You are fully aware that I can hear you. Right?" The sorceress said, lounging atop a bookshelf, her talons hanging over the edge. "This is a wonderful exercise in concentration. Besides, you have no idea what it took out of me to disorganize this library. Well what are you lot waiting for? Get cleaning. Go on. I haven't all eternity."

She took in what used to be the temple library. Books and scrolls were scattered everywhere, all the bookshelves –aside from the one the griffin was lying on herself- were either toppled over or otherwise moved, and somehow everything was coated in dust. She seemed to recall Master Fung asking Minerva to sort some new books into the library earlier.

She was grateful that this was their last day of training with her for the week. Two days a week for the past three weeks they did whatever came to the sorceress's head. Most of which seemed to be designed to draw out sorcerous power. No matter what Minerva did, Kimiko was determined not to become a sorceress. She had seen what that particular brand of magic did to her and Chase. She didn't want to become like them Raimundo unfortunately had to go back to her cave for another three days of solo training. He said that it was just as difficult as it used to be, but she seemed to dislike him slightly less now.

"I reckon we should start an alphabetizin' system," Clay said, staring at the chaos. "If y'all get somethin' startin' with A put it here." He put an old book down on a table.

"I can't believe we're doing her work," Rai groaned, starting an H pile. "Even I've never done this."

"Fences," she coughed, remembering a day after he became Shoku. He was supposed to repaint a part of the temple fence, but had somehow convinced Omi of the "honor" and "dignity" that came with fence painting.

"You mean the honorable ancient art of Fence Fu?" Omi asked, resetting an old vase. Rai covered his mouth to keep from laughing too hard at the young monk's naiveté. "That would be greatly preferable to this."

"Rai, you're horrible," Kimiko said quietly, giggling and elbowing him in the ribs, a little irritated with his prank.

"I know. Isn't it great?" He said, smirking at her and putting his arm around her waist.

"Fence Fu?" The sorceress snorted, incredulous. "What in hellfire is Master Fung teaching you?"

They continued like this for the next few hours. Sorting scrolls and books, resetting shelves, dusting, all manner of cleaning. After what seemed like forever, they finally put the last scroll on a high shelf.

"If I never see another book starting with S again, it'll be too soon," Clay said, putting his hat back on his head.

"I hear ya man. That feather duster's going to haunt my nightmares," Rai said, glaring at the offending object.

"It's going to haunt your waking hours too if this is what you children call clean," Minerva said, flipping down from her bookshelf and shuddering at invisible particles of dust. "I'll deal with this later. We're fortunately out of time for the week. Quick little assignment before I go." All of them groaned. She had it in their heads that they were going to have homework.

"Research papers. And no complaining. Chase and Guan did this. You can too. Now, on to topics: Cowboy, dressage or show jumping. Take your pick. Girl, I'm expecting either a paper on modern sorcery." Kimiko grimaced. Somehow, she knew this was coming. "Boy, ancient architecture. And Cheeseball…" Here she paused, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Women's rights. Now, I want these done by the time I'm back next week. Failure to comply will result in introduction to the obstacle course."

She walked out of the library and left them to their assignment. "I cannot believe I have to write a paper in two days," Rai said, slapping his face. "This is totally unfair."

"You know what else is unfair?" Dojo said, slithering into the room. "These boils on my arms. Come on. We've got a three alarm Shen Gong Wu alert."

The four of them ran off to get Wu, happy for the first new Shen Gong Wu in over a month. She was especially grateful to get the memory of the last one out of her head. The power of the Whip of Anubis terrified her. Occasionally, she would get flashes of memory from when she was under its control. She couldn't believe she had ever had such a hero worship of Chase.

They got their Wu, got changed and were back in the courtyard in minutes. Dojo changed sizes and they leapt on and unrolled the scroll. "It appears to be the Ring of Isildur," Omi said, pointing at the scroll where a little ink man stood in front of a massive door. "When used, the Ring of Isildur can unlock any door."

"Not one of Dashi's better ideas," Dojo said. "You guys are going to have fun getting this one. We're going to Paris, the city of lights." Kimiko smiled, happy to visit the fashion capital of the world.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

"Dojo, when you say the city of lights, we don't expect sewers," Kimiko said, glaring at the dragon.

"Hey, I said Paris, I never said runways. Now, I think it's somewhere over here," Dojo said, scurrying across the floor. "Hey Clay, you mind doing something about this wall? I know it's right here." The cowboy sent a rock into the wall, shattering a section just large enough for the warriors to get through.

Of course, as soon as they entered, Raimundo wished they hadn't. They had apparently inadvertently entered the famous catacombs. There was something decidedly off putting about walls made out of skulls.

"Dojo, why would Grandmaster Dashi, in all his infinite wisdom, choose to hide the Ring of Isildur in this most creepy of places?" Omi asked, peering through the hole.

"He didn't. Someone found the ring, died, and was buried here," Dojo said. "Although it is kind of dark and spooky. I think I'll stand guard right out here."

"What's to worry about? They're dead, we're fine," Rai said, picking up the dragon and dragging him through the makeshift door.

"Sure, tell that to me later when Wuya uses the Whip of Anubis to make a skeleton army," Dojo said, scratching at the remains of the concrete. Raimundo had forgotten about that. He figured that giving the Heylin side a Wu that could let them into the vault whenever they very well pleased was a bad idea though.

"Fine. Wait here. When we're back in one piece I'll laugh in your face," he said, letting go of the little dragon and walking down the bone corridor, looking as casual as he possibly could. "Now, we're going to take the flashlight. You'll be here all alone. In the Dark. With poor Yorick."

"On second thought, I'm coming with you," Dojo said, scrambling after the monks. "I don't want to get to know him that well."

_Works every time_, he thought, smirking to himself. The four monks walked through the tunnels, waiting for Jack or Chase to appear in the gloom. Eventually, the labyrinth split into four different tunnels.

"It's this way," Dojo said, pointing to the far left tunnel, then changed his mind. "No, wait, this way. Or maybe that way. I don't know. The scent's too scattered." Rai pinched the bridge of is nose in frustration.

"It appears as if we should break up," Omi said.

"Split up," Clay said. "I don't know. We've only got one flashlight and if anyone gets into trouble they'll be on their own."

"If we don't Jack will get the Wu," Kimiko said, lighting one of her fingertips. "Rai, you can make a Witch's Light right?" Barely, but he didn't want to admit that, so he nodded. "Omi, you brought the Sun Chi Lantern, Clay you've got the flashlight."

They all nodded and reluctantly split up. Rai concentrated his energy and managed to produce a small, blueish-white light. It somehow managed to make the catacombs even creepier.

Every tap of his sneakers echoed in the tombs and even his familiar shadow seemed malevolent. The light flickered, illuminating hundreds of grinning skulls and no end in sight. He was suddenly reminded of every horror movie he had ever seen. He had always enjoyed Day of the Dead, but celebration was the furthest thing from his mind as he walked the halls.

A sudden chill filled the air and a gust of wind blew past, almost extinguishing the Witch's Light. He tried to find the source, and found that the wind had blown in from around a corner up ahead. He ran forwards, thinking that maybe the Wu could be where the wind had come from, but he was disappointed when he saw that the side tunnel ended about ten yards from the main one.

_It had to come from somewhere,_ he thought. He sent out small gusts of wind, still slightly afraid of losing control, to find where the original breeze came from. One of them flowed through a small hole in the base of the back wall. Small enough for a bean or someone the size of a grain of rice to go through.

He could actually hear voices through the crack. "Come now, I'm sure we can find a mutually acceptable solution to this," a heavily accented voice said.

"Of course. You leave, I don't crush you," Chase's voice replied.

"Serpent's Tail," he said and turned immaterial. He flowed through the wall, shuddering slightly at the skulls.

"Like you did those monks? I heard you got beat by them at your most powerful," the bean said, chuckling slightly.

"I heard you turned yourself to pure energy, yet still lost. Now how can that be?" Chase said, his voice like cold fire.

The four Heylins still hadn't noticed him standing in the shadows. He glanced around the small room, a simple sepulcher stood in the center between Jack, Wuya, and Chase and Hannibal. The lid had an intricate design on top, the center of which was a black colored ring.

He gathered his powers, waiting for enough to launch himself towards the tomb and grab the ring. However when he did so, Jack lunged forwards at the same time. In a rare show of coordination, Jack managed to get his hand on the small ring at the same time as Raimundo's.

"Jack, I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown," he said before getting cut off. "Showdown Trio you moron," Hannibal said, they had missed the bean in the original count.

"Fine, Showdown Trio. First to reach the end of the maze wins. My Serpent's Tail against your Moby Morpher and Whip of Anubis," he said, figuring it would be best to get something good out of this.

"We don't have that anymore," Wuya said. Chase shot her a glare and she continued with an explanation. "It was unknowingly traded for something more important."

"Fine. How about the Black Beetle?" He asked.

"I accept," both Heylins said in sync.

"Let's go. Xiaolin Showdown," they said and the area around them began to change. He instantly wished he had picked a different showdown. The area had changed into another bone labyrinth. The team was teleported to a viewing area and he joined the Heylins in the center of the maze.

"Gong Yi Tan Pi!" the three of them yelled before taking off in different directions.

**New game. Spotting a reference to popculture earns you the right to review and a rainbow sprinkle cookie. **


	3. Correspondence

**Hey everyone! New chapter, new adventures, new confusion. I'll admit it, even I got bloody confused trying to write the middle of the showdown. Thanks to SSMahana, XSrules95, Moonprincess016 (BTW, I love being an inspiration), AmuletSpade (show jumping and dressage are kinds of english riding), Healingspringwaters (yep. I'm a LOTR freak), and the Anonymous Candybar for your reviews. I know. Poor old Min. Reading a paper on Women's Rights written by Omi. And now for something totally different...**

**Disclaimer: This is awkward...I used the funny one on the fic that I don't really care about...ummm...well...I own nothing. **

_**Correspondence**_

Jack and Hannibal started running through the bone maze, Rai however decided to savor the moment. The Serpent's Tail gave him a decided advantage, he could afford to wait. He leaned back against the wall nonchalantly. This was going to be like taking candy from a couple of babies.

"Raimundo, insert Jack Spicer into your neurotransmitters," Omi yelled at him. He hoped Omi meant "get your head in the game." The alternative was too horrifying to even consider for a moment.

"Cool down snow man. I've got it covered," he called back. "Serpent's Tail." He turned ghostly and headed towards the wall. He didn't expect what happened next. He should have just floated through the grinning skulls, only he was extremely disgusted to find his face plastered against the bleached white bones.

"Dojo, what just happened?" Clay asked, voicing what Rai was thinking.

"This is covered in the rule book under "Caught the dirty rotten scoundrel,"" the little dragon said, pulling out the red book.

He sighed, it appeared that his plan had failed, and took off into the maze. He couldn't believe he had let himself act so stupid. It was like he was back to being new dragon again. Why had he acted so cocky? Master Fung would give him such a rant later. He would totally deserve it too.

He careened around a corner, only to almost run into a dead end head on. "Shit," he muttered, wheeling around and running off again. He hadn't noticed this at first, but the lighting got gradually dimmer the farther he got from the center of the maze. He could only see about ten feet in front of his face and he hoped that neither of the Heylins would use this to make things even worse for him

The sound of other feet pounding on cobblestones grew louder and louder by the moment, but he didn't dare use his powers to catch up with them. The dragon of the Wind remembered what it was like to be like a god, and even though he knew that whatever was left of the sorceress's power was gone, losing control still terrified him.

He had done his best to keep this a secret for the past month, but he suspected Master Fung knew. The old monk kept practice well within his comfort zone. Min hadn't. She pushed him just as hard as she had before. Harder now that she knew what he was capable of.

A shock of red hair disappeared around a corner and Raimundo decided to follow the evil genius. It had to be better than wandering around blindly in the dark. The whir of the helibot gave him a guide as they descended farther and farther in the darkness.

He was still kicking himself for acting so stupidly when he noticed where the almost insignificant light was coming from. The eerie bluish glow came from the eye sockets of the skulls and the mist swirling around his ankles crept from the grinning mouths.

The Heylins couldn't get this Wu. They would have a free pass to the vault and any other locked safe in the world. It was far too dangerous to give someone like Chase or Hannibal, or even Jack that sort of power.

Bolting around a corner, he saw Jack standing in the middle of a circular room. The red-head looked like he didn't have a care in the world. "Hey Xiaolin Loser," he said, leaning on the wall.

"It's about time you caught up with us," another Jack said, stepping out of the blue-white mist. Somehow, it didn't surprise him that Jack and Hannibal decided to double team him.

"We're so glad you could join," Jack number one said, moving in front of the only other exit. The second Jack jumped at him and kicked his side with surprising force.

"Serpent's Tail," he yelled, and flew towards the first Jack, but just as he was about to pass through, the wannabe-wannabe grabbed the Shen Gong Wu away from him and he crashed into the Jack. The second Jack grabbed him, pulled him back and proceeded to start punching him.

Maybe if he could figure out which one was really Jack he would stand a chance. The one holding him back right now smelled like microwave burritos, but the other one had a less annoying evil laugh. He greatly doubted that the real Jack would have a less annoying laugh than anyone, so in his mind it was a reasonable assumption that the Jack holding him was the real jack.

He swung out with a move Master Monk Guan showed him and his foot made contact with what he thought was the real Jack's shoulder. The goth went flying into a bone wall, but before he could go back the way he came, the other Jack jumped at him and in a display of coordination that sealed the identities, hit him in the back.

"Shoku Storm, Wind," he said, blowing this Jack away, only to have the other one come back. This Jack attempted to slap him, but Rai grabbed his wrist and twisted it behind his back. The blades popped out of the helibot and he jumped back in effort to keep from being sliced apart.

The Jack whirled around and jumped at him. The dragon of the Wind was caught off guard by the audacity of the evil boy genius and tumbled backwards. The Jack held him down and asked the other one to help out, but there was no response.

He looked to the area where the other Jack had been sitting, but instead, all he saw was the hem of a black trench coat disappearing down the hallway. He shook off the Jack holding him down and started to run after the disappearing Heylin.

"Stupid no-good cheater. You said you'd help me," the Jack yelled after his doppelganger, jumping at Raimundo's feet. The brown haired boy fell onto the cold, ice white floor.

"You guys don't know when to quit do you?" He snarled, kicking the Jack in the face, cracking his goggles. Both of them jumped to their feet and the Jack began to attack. Somehow, tripping over his own feet kept the boy genius safe from getting hit by any major attacks.

Suddenly, the thought occurred to him that this might be his battle strategy. Minerva had pretended her arm was worse than it really was last week to lull him into a false sense of security, why couldn't Jack act more uncoordinated than usual to do the same? Now that he really concentrated on it, Jack's tripping and flailing seemed oddly choreographed. Kind of exaggerated.

To test his theory, he tried to just back away and run, but the Jack stumbled into him to keep him from fleeing. He threw an open palmed strike at the Jack, but in a surprising movement, he grabbed his arm and threw him against the wall

Thinking that the dragon of Wind was out, he ran out of the room with Raimundo close behind. However, before they could get far, the showdown began to collapse in upon itself again. He turned watched as the Jack in front of him changed back into Hannibal Bean as the Shen Gong Wu floated over to the real boy genius.

While it was less humiliating that he was losing the fight to Hannibal, he still lost two dangerous Wu to the Heylin side. And to Jack Spicer. All because he had to go and be cocky.

"Raimundo, why did you not begin the showdown when you were supposed to?" Omi asked, waving his arms wildly about.

"Because I thought I had it under control," he said, brushing off the smaller monk. "I guessed wrong. I'm sorry. I made a mistake. I'm human."

Kimiko made a few halfhearted attempts to cheer him up, but he could tell she was angry and disappointed too. The flight back to the temple was quiet as the grave, giving him time to think about what he was going to say to Master Fung. He wouldn't try to make excuses for his behavior. He had done that far too often and he was trying to be a better leader. That meant taking responsibility for his actions.

However, when they began to descend into the temple courtyard, a strange sight met their eyes. A griffin, much larger than Minerva and with dark brown feathers, sat in a pool of light in the center of the courtyard.

"Are you the Xiaolin Dragons?" He asked, looking rather uncoordinated and a little sleepy as he lurched to his feet. Rai was shocked at the size difference within the species. His shoulder was level with Minerva's back, but by his estimate the brown animal's shoulder was level with his head.

"Yeah. Now who are you and what in the samhill are you doin' at the temple at two in the mornin'?" Clay asked as the group fell into battle stances. The animal gave an exasperated sigh and a shake of the head.

"I'm not about to eat you if that's what you're worried about. Your masters just gave me a lovely meal of stir-fried pork," he said, his voice sounding genuinely grateful. "I am Hydrageratum, messenger from the Council of Magi, but you can call me Gerry. I have two letters from the High Councilor. I have already given your message to Master Fung. Which of you is Minerva's apprentice?" He sounded unsure of himself, like he was new to the whole messenger business.

"I am," Rai said, nervously raising his hand.

"Oh good. Um, the next time you see her would you mind giving her this?" He said, taking an envelope from a bag around his neck and handing the ivory paper to Raimundo. He nodded and Gerry twitched his ears in approval. "I know it's not strictly protocol, but it's late and I'm not entirely sure where she lives. Meryl just assumes that everyone knows these things and…" Rai got the feeling that the nervous animal would have a mental breakdown if he were allowed to continue for much longer.

"Don't sweat it dude. I'm going to see her tomorrow," he said, attempting to reassure him. Gerry calmed down a little and flicked his tail in embarrassment.

"Thank you dragon of the Wind," he said. "Now, I must be going. I'll see all of you in a few weeks." With this, Gerry vanished into the night, leaving the Xiaolin dragons to wonder what he meant and Dojo to flip out over something yet unknown.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

"Yes! Xiaolin Temple here I come," Jack said, pumping his fist in the air and turning the key for the Batbot. Given the new turbo boosters he installed, he could be there before the monks even got back.

"No," Chase said, grabbing the Ring of Isildur out of his hand and heading back to his spot by the cabin door. The warlock had been increasingly agitated since the Shen Gong Wu went active. "This is not a toy. You will not use it as such."

Jack waited until the sorcerer turned his head to stick his tongue out at him. He drove the immortals to the showdown, he backstabbed Hannibal, he won the showdown, he deserved at least one Temple raid out of this.

Jack turned up the volume on his Ipod, it helped him concentrate while flying. However, even Led Zeppelin couldn't quite let him shut out the sounds of the two Heylins acting as backseat pilots and having a fairly heated discussion. Jack couldn't quite make out everything they were saying, but he did catch the phrases: Ring, Bean, and Sealed Away.

When they finally reached the lair after hours of conflicting criticisms, he originally planned to just drop them off and leave, but Chase had other plans. "Come along," he said, sounding like it was something Jack should have already known to do. "There's someone I wish for you to meet."

"Can't this wait until tomorrow? I've got school today and AP history is first period," he whined. Chase silenced him with a glare. "On second thought, meeting your friend sounds great."

"Wolfram is no friend of mine," he said, rolling his eyes and opening the door to the lair.

"What is that incompetent wizard doing here?" Wuya asked, following him in.

"It would appear that he used a messenger's pass to bypass security and illegally teleport in, and used the same pass to keep from being mauled," Chase said. "A decidedly evil act for such a good wizard."

"Alright worm. I know you have this imagined rivalry with my mentor, but I've asked you to keep me out of it. Now, are you going to come out and make this easier on yourself or am I going to have to come find you?" Jack wasn't sure which option Chase sounded like he disliked more. After a moment, a man dressed in ice white robes stepped out from behind a column.

"Why Chase, how nice to see you. You're right on all counts of my entry but two. I'm here on official business. This is completely legal and has nothing to do with your pet," he said, taking out an ivory envelope from his sleeve. "This is from the Head Councilor. Enjoy the tribunal."

The sorcerer gestured to an unseen cat and it stepped out from behind a pillar to take the envelope. "Let me guess, the messenger giving this to Minerva didn't feel like indulging you and you decided that telling her apprentice that he's mad is almost as good," he said. "How much did you have to pay him to do this? Some mad amount I'm sure."

"I did this purely out of the goodness of my heart," Wolfram said, even Jack could tell he was a terrible liar. "The messenger sent for you was old and tired. I was only doing him a favor. Now if you excuse me, I really must be going." The flustered man gestured for the three of them to move aside so he could leave, but both Chase and Wuya were having none of that. The man sighed and went around them.

"You know Chase, you showed considerable promise on the side of good. Ever consider rejoining?" Wolfram said as he started to walk out the door

"Nope. The fact that the side of good has incompetents such as yourself is proof enough of that," he said, shutting the door and flinging the wizard outside with a dismissive flick of his wrist. "Now Spicer, do you see why I wanted you to meet him?" Jack shook his head. "Because that bloody security tower didn't do its job. Now, unless you want to have creatures like him running around the place, you had best come back tomorrow and fix it."

**And fin. Because I was far too lazy to bake this week, everyone who reviews gets to hug Gerry. (Although anyone who gets the chemestry references in the OC names might find that I'm not that lazy after all) And I'm still looking for suggestions for The Way We Were, so feel free to PM me with your ideas. **


	4. Astral

**Greetings my lovely readers. I have some rather bad news. I am discontinuing my Xiaolin Showdown fics to focus on my true passion. Jersey Shore/Rebecca Black Crossovers. I appologize to everyone for the inconvienience this may cause you, but you must always remember, today is april first. You just got punk'd. I just had to do something to make up for yet more snow. Winter needs to die. Thanks to XSrules95, Sundragon27, Healingspringwaters, and TheAnonymousCandybar. And now for something totally different...**

**Disclaimer: The Las Vegas crime lab holds many wonderful things. Crime scene minitures, impossible seeming cases, Nick Stokes and Greg Sanders...but I digress. The most important thing in the crime lab is the fetal pig in Grissom's office. I own Xiaolin Showdown when that pig leaves Grissom's office. **

_**Astral**_

"Young monks, this is most grave news," Master Fung said, reading over a piece of paper in his hands. Dojo curled atop his head, shaking in something between anxiety and fear.

"What is going on? We just had a most strange encounter in the courtyard," Omi asked. Kim had to admit, meeting Gerry was a little odd. Dojo got so nervous after the skittish messenger left.

The old monk pulled an old scroll out of his sleeve and continued, "The Celestial Dragons were the original guardians of the elemental powers. However they abused their powers and because of this they had to give their powers to four mortals." He placed the scroll on the table and unrolled it.

On the parchment, there were four dragons illustrated. The first had a massive, powerful body, with mottled gray, green, and brown scales like flakes of stone. She was curled around a tree trunk and stone pillars rose out of the ground around her. Her emerald eyes focused on something far in the distance.

The second had a smaller, more delicate build and a narrow head perched on a swanlike neck. His head was thrown back and flames leapt from his open mouth. Light from lava flows glinted off crimson and orange scales and made his mango colored eyes glow with a strange passion.

The third dragon rode atop a wave in a stormy sea. His serpentine body covered in smooth looking scales in all shades of blue and a mane of green and gold whiskers flowed from his lionesque face. Unlike the other three, he looked more like an eastern dragon than a European one.

The final dragon stood on a mountain ledge, her almost feathery wings spread in anticipation of an updraft. The scales on her catlike body started as dark gray on her back, but faded to a silver-white at her feet. Something about the mischievous gleam in her eyes reminded her of Raimundo.

"They currently reside in the spirit world in presiding over balance between the elements. Events of late temporarily upset the balance of power," the old man said. "If the Celestial Dragons are angered enough, they may be able to break free of their prison. If they break into the physical world, it may mean the end of life as we know it."

"So how do we stop it from happenin'?" Clay asked, his eyes transfixed on the green dragon. Kimiko found herself similarly drawn to the red beast.

"The four of you must go to the Council of Magi and prove yourselves worthy of entry into the spirit world. After that, the four of you must find your elemental dragon and show them that balance has been restored," he said, further unfurling the scroll.

"Master Fung, what's that?" Rai asked, pointing to illustrations at the very edges of the scroll. There were four figures, each one appearing to be in incredible pain.

"Do not fret too much young monks. You are not yet Xiaolin Initiates so you will not undergo the trials for your secondary elements. However, you should be prepared for anything," he said. "Five thousand years of imprisonment has done nothing for their tempers. Now, we have four monks who need to be well rested for training tomorrow. I expect you to be ready no later than six thirty."

There was a collective groan from the monks. Although she thought that maybe they should have expected early morning training with the fate of the world resting on them. Rai still looked depressed from earlier, but she was so pissed about the way he acted she couldn't bring herself to talk to him.

The four of them went silently to their rooms, everyone too tired and stressed out to do anything else. Too sleepy to even websurf, she went straight to bed. She would wake up the next morning, a vague impression of a half-remembered dream burned into her head. All she could remember was an all-encompassing cold.

The others looked like they had similarly rough nights at breakfast. Rai almost poked himself in the eye with a spoon three or four times before realizing that yes, cereal goes into your mouth, Omi bounced around with considerably less vigor than usual, and much to his dismay, Clay mistook his hat for a coffee cup.

"Well if that don't beat all! Why do mornings have to come so early?" The cowboy said, wringing his hat out over the sink.

"Because time hates us," Rai yawned.

"How can time hate us when it is a non-sentient concept?" Omi asked, buttering toast. Kimiko winced, they were going to have to give him a crash course in the modern world eventually. Of course, they had been saying that for over three years.

"Just go with it Omi," she said, still trying to figure out just what the peanut butter was for. They sat around listening to Omi's arguments for why time couldn't possibly hate them for a while longer, Raimundo insisting that they not go out for training until exactly six thirty.

"I'm getting out of psycho training for this. I'm not going to set one foot in that courtyard until the minute hand reaches the six," he said from the doorway.

"Well Bobo, I see being appointed to leader has done nothing for your work ethic," a familiar voice joked. She turned around to see Master Monk Guan standing under a tree on the other side of the courtyard.

"Master Monk Guan, what are you doing here?" Omi said, darting over to his hero.

"I received a call at two of the morning from Master Fung with a frantic dragon screaming in the background. I have come to assist him and Minerva with your training," he said. The four of them didn't know whether to breathe a sigh of relief or cringe.

"Great to have you back," Rai said, somehow managing to sound properly respectful. "And my work ethic is insulted. It's been under a lot of strain lately."

"If by strain you mean that you talked Cheeseball into doing the dishes rather than using the Shroud of Shadows then I'd say you were correct," Minerva said, sliding out of the tree. While Omi lectured Rai about the importance of chores, the two immortals detailed their schedule for the day to the two other dragons.

They would start off with meditation, trying to open their minds to their elements. Then they would move into sparring and some work with the Shen Gong Wu. After that, they would have over an hour for lunch. While this confused her, the boys were rather happy about it. Then they would have some one on one work with the ex-dragons. They would end with studying and what the sorceress called "a nice little run." Although from Raimundo's reaction, she seriously doubted that.

Meditation started out normally. The usual "Focus on what your element means to you." However, awhile into it, it started getting weird. Visions of flames danced through her head as per usual, but suddenly, she was aware that she wasn't in the temple. She was standing on a rare cool rock in the middle of a lava flow. She twitched her hand, and a plume of magma shot up.

"That is rather interesting isn't it?" A strangely accented voice said. She tried to turn around, but found that she couldn't move. "You want to see how truly interesting this place is? Of course you do. You're the dragon of Fire. This is your world. And every flawless inch of it can be yours. All you have to do is let me go free."

Her hand moved unconsciously, magma arched over her head. Her fingers twitched and molten rock shot up from the flows in impossible plumes. Which each motion, the crimson liquid danced across the surface. Almost like playing a piano. It was so beautiful, so mesmerizing, that she almost didn't notice her mouth beginning to form the word "yes."

"No," she said, hastily covering up any intention she had of agreeing to the Fire Lord's request.

Suddenly her eyes snapped open and she was back in the temple. The other three monks looked to be in similar states of shock. It was Raimundo who recovered and spoke first.

"She's crazy," he sounded just a little shaken.

"How're we supposed to make them do anythin' much less give up a chance to get outa dodge?" Clay asked, sounding rather wierded out.

"I am sure the four of you will find a way," Master Monk Guan said, gesturing for them to get up. "I think it would be best to give you a break for now. The first meeting is never easy."

They were grateful for the break. No one was really willing to talk about what they saw, but at least she found some solace in how they were all in the same boat. The sorceress came for them half an hour later to work on fight moves. She and Guan drove them hard, although in a weird way, it made things easier. The more difficult training became, the less they could think about things.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

"If I never hear the words "oyster fork" again, it'll be too soon," Rai said, shaking his head as they left the dining hall.

"I am not entirely sure of what that was supposed to accomplish," Omi said. What they thought would be a nice long lunch break turned into a lecture on just about every kind of silverware one could think of and then some.

"I don't want to know," Kimiko said. Rai was actually a little surprised she disliked it as much as she did. As heiress to a multinational company, he would have figured she was used to this sort of thing.

At least now they had some solo training. The two immortals left the other three dragons with some fighting moves to work on and led him into the library. "What's with the sour look boy?" The sorceress asked, gesturing for him to sit down. Because the two elders didn't, he politely declined the chair.

"Nothing. Just kind of tired," he said shrugging. He didn't think he looked that poorly. Little sleep, self-disgust, and a creeped out feeling had obviously taken its toll.

"Bobo, one lost Shen Gong Wu is not the end of the world," Guan said. The older man had never quite broken the habit of calling him Bobo, although now it held no insulting twinge.

"I lost two powerful Wu to Jack Spicer. I can't believe I acted so stupid," he said.

"Boy, he said it isn't the end of the world. Quit going on about it. The earth revolves around the sun, not you," Min said, drumming her ice white fingernails on the table. "Now, what did you see?" He didn't want to answer, but suddenly found himself compelled to. Like a hand pressing into the back of his skull.

"I was flying and it felt amazing, like when I had the power of two dragons. Then a voice starts talking to me. It's telling me to go faster, and I keep accelerating until I can't hear anything. Then I hear the voice again, and I know it's asking me a question, but I can't quite make it out. I said no and I was back in the temple again," he said, glaring at both of them accusingly, unsure of who made him answer.

"That's Tempestra for you. The Celestial pain in the ass knows every trick in the book," she said.

"You must be careful to always be on your guard," Master Monk Guan said. "The dragons will do anything to be free again." The older man sounded like he knew what it was like to deal with them.

The two of them showed him some techniques for keeping the storm dragon out of his head now that he had established contact and when they were done, Guan went to get Omi, leaving him alone with Minerva.

"I believe you have something for me," the shape shifter said, holding out an expectant hand. He took the crumpled ivory envelope out of his pocket and handed it to her. "Thank you. I do so hate hearing that I'm mad second hand."

"What is it?" He asked, wanting to know what Gerry was so eager to get rid of.

"Nothing much. Just a letter telling me that I am to show up for a tribunal in order to prove myself sane," she said. Rai laughed a little. "A spell of mine contributed to a major disruption of elemental balance. It's no laughing matter. This is my second time going in for one of these."

"Explain please," he said. If she was formally accused of being insane, he wanted details.

"Well, when a sorceress preforms a spell that causes unintentional widespread destruction, we have to prove that we were in full control of our minds at the time. You burn down London once in an attempt to save the world from bad puns and you can never live it down, but you intentionally create a fire breathing cow that levels Chicago and you're off the hook," she said, sounding rather resentful. "I just hate getting a call in the middle of the night asking for help at one of these tribunals."

"Did they want anything else?" He asked, thinking that there would only be one other person who could possibly ask her for help with this. She probably wouldn't give him any information about Chase's plans, but it was worth a shot.

"Nothing," She said, no traces of deception. Although he still didn't trust Chase not to try and profit off their misfortune. Then she added in a tone far gentler then he could have thought possible, "And by the way boy, you need to start trusting yourself again. You won't last one second against Tempestra if you don't."

**And now I leave you with a plate of organic, soybased, gluten-free, fair trade, vegan, zuchini muffins with sugarfree summersquash icing. Who am I kidding? Even I'm disgusted by that...review pancakes for all. **


	5. Music of the Spheres

**Hi everyone. I'm sorry if I scared people last chapter. I just can't resist a good april fools. :) BTW, anyone caught writing Jersey Shore/Rebecca Black crossovers will incur my notible displeasure. Thanks go to Healingspringwaters, The Anonymous Candybar, and Moon Princess016. You guys give me the strength to keep this nonsense up. And now for something totally different...**

**Disclaimer: Hugh Laurie -better known as Dr. House- played a character known as Bertie Wooster in the series Wooster and Jeeves. In an episode, he had to take care of his aunt's iritating dog. Unfortunately, it was Bertie Wooster, not Dr. House that took care of the dog. I still own nothing. **

_**Music of the Spheres**_

Jack glanced around the sitting room. He could never quite get used to it. It was so…normal compared to the rest of Chase's lair. A couple back issues of National Geographic, Popular Magic, Villainy Monthly, and Good Housekeeping dotted the otherwise immaculate coffee table. There was a rather pleasant smelling potted plant to the left of the well-stocked bookshelf, a combination record-CD player, a spell book or two under a sofa. It could have belonged to just about anyone.

Of course, the people in the room dispelled any sense of normalcy. The fifteen hundred year old shape shifting sorcerer and formerly ghostly witch would not be considered normal in any universe. Especially given that neither of them was sitting on the incredibly comfy leather sofas. He had to say though; the strangest bit was the three orbs floating about the room.

"They were so much less annoying when they were separate," Wuya said, as the scarlet sphere went flying by her head. "Where did you get that one anyway?" She gestured to the emerald green orb floating in the potted plant.

"Guan doesn't even know it's missing. The fool still thinks I took that spear simply to weaken him," he said, his hands folded calmly behind his back.

"Okay, so that's one stolen, one bartered for, the one you had...," Jack said, counting them out on his fingers. A pop quiz in calculus earlier fried his brain. . "We're still one short."

"You've finally learned to count to four. Brilliant isn't he?" Wuya said.

"Obtaining it may pose a bit of an obstacle, but one that can be overcome," the dark lord said, swatting the dove gray orb down from the lamp.

"The boy has one of the least guarded minds in the world. Convincing him to retrieve it for us will be a simple matter of leverage," Wuya said.

"And we have the perfect fulcrum," Chase said, the beginnings of a smile twitching at the edge of his lips.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

_There's that stupid noise again,_ he thought, jamming the pillow down over his ears. It wasn't so much a noise as air vibrations, but he had no better word for it. _What the hell is it?_ The same question ran through his exhausted mind countless times in the last hour.

_Min's a frickin' insomniac. It's probably just her out there deliberately keeping me awake._ The immortal had a tendency to run the vacuum or the washing machine at obscene hours. This didn't really feel like a vacuum though. The vacuum would have had the rest of the temple awake and agitated with him. Besides, even at her worst OCD moments, Min was too afraid of the vacuum to run it for more than twenty minutes.

_Alright. Fine. You win, but this had better be at least ten thousand years of darkness_, he thought, rolling off his mat and putting his slippers on. Whatever was making the noise was in for a world of hurt when he found it. There was no alternate universe where dragon of the Wind meant morning person.

There was nothing outside the dorms, just the usual lantern glow on the stone walkways. The courtyard was similarly empty, as was the sparring area. The noise seemed to come from beyond the temple walls. He wasn't sure if he should try to find the source, it could just be nothing and all of this fuss would have been worthless. But he wasn't going to be so stupid as to underestimate a potential opponent again.

He ran to the gate and with a few deft bolts of wind, jimmied the lock. The pulsing energy came from the forest. With a sigh of resignation, he forced his tired body into a jog. Nothing along the running trail, and more of the same in the clearing. He was beginning to think that this was just a hallucination when he saw a silhouette move in the trees. The noise grew stronger as he headed towards the lake, and he began to think that going after whatever it was alone wasn't such a good idea.

Moonlight filtered through the leaves, making the path ahead of him easier to see. Within minutes, the hard ground of the forest gave way to the soft sand of the lakeside. It was definitely coming from here. Rai glanced around and his gaze fell on what looked like a grey baseball at the edge of the water.

It looked so peaceful and unimposing in the moonlight, but he knew that things were almost never what they seemed and so approached it warily. Droplets of water fell to the sand as he picked the orb up. It was smooth and cool to the touch and it vibrated with energy that was at the same time strange and familiar. This was definitely what the noise was coming from.

"Beautiful isn't it?" A voice said. Rai jumped and whipped around. He definitely should have waited until morning. Coming out here alone was not a good idea.

"Chase Young. What do you want?" He fell into a defensive stance and dropped the orb.

"Nothing much. I was just on my way to obtain something important," The sorcerer said, standing calmly with his hands folded behind his back. "The more vital question is what are you doing here?"

"None of your business," he snarled. He wasn't going to take part in whatever Chase had planned. Rai glared at the warlord with unrivaled hatred, Chase returned a proud, indifferent, "you're not worth my time" type look.

Raimundo began to circle around the sorcerer, hoping to make a break for the forest. If he could get back to the temple, he would be fine. It wasn't like Chase to let his quarry go though. The moment Rai broke into a run, the sorcerer appeared in front of him and blew him back with a two fingered strike to his sternum.

The dragon of the Wind picked himself back up and lunged at the older man. Whatever the warlock was up to, he would do everything in his power to stop him. Chase dodged effortlessly and tripped him as he went flying past. Rai spat out sand and wheeled around in an attempt to sweep kick his feet from behind, but even without seeing him, the sorcerer sprang up and out of sight.

He glanced around, nothing in sight except for the gently lapping waves on the lakeshore and trees of the moonlit forest. He felt something hit his knee from behind and he fell. Rai caught himself before he hit the ground and flipped back to his feet. "What do you want with me?"

"Like I said, I'm in the area to obtain a relic with sentimental value," he said, looking completely unaffected by their fight. He knew that Chase didn't attach sentimental value to things. Whatever it was he wanted it was for a sinister purpose.

"Cut the games gecko, we both know why you're here," he said.

"You're as impatient as you are foolish. Tell me boy, do you know how the connection between sorcerers works?" The taller man vanished before his eyes, but this time Raimundo didn't make a break for the woods. He stood a better chance in the open ground on the beach.

He stirred up the air around him, trying to locate the Heylin. Before he could do anything, Chase appeared right in front of him and put one gloved finger in the center of his forehead.

Pain flashed through his body. Like blazing fire and the coldest ice pulsing through his veins at once. His vision blacked out and his body twisted and contorted against his will. His throat felt like there was a river of blood pouring from a gaping wound. Every racing heartbeat sent new waves of anguish through his limbs. His breath caught in his throat, air wouldn't go to his lungs. Then as soon as it started, it stopped.

He was on his hands and knees, his body still trembling, his breath rattled in his chest and he almost rejoiced at the taste of sweet, sweet air. His hand went instantly to his neck and it came away clean. The dragon lord hadn't slit his throat.

"Between every sorcerer there is a mental connection," he said, giving the shaken warrior the same aloof look he'd given before. "You feel that pain boy?" Raimundo nodded weakly. "I can put the dragon of Fire through that whenever I so please. But if you do as I say then I promise you that I will do everything in my power to break the connection between our minds."

Rai was silent, considering his options. Help Chase Young or hurt Kimiko. He had to have more information before making a decision. "I'm not saying yes, but what do you need me to do?"

"Just a little errand," the black haired man said. "It's dead simple too." He suspected that Chase's definition of "little errand" wasn't "dead simple."

"I'm not going to do anything until you tell me what I'm agreeing to," he said, shaking as he dragged himself to his feet.

"I suppose you have a right to know," he said, still so calm and collected. "At the bottom of the vault there is a small room that can only be accessed by a Xiaolin Dragon. I need you to go in there and bring me a small mahogany box. Do this for me and I give you my word that I will not harm her."

He still couldn't make a decision. Helping Chase could not possibly end well, but he wouldn't wish that pain on his worst enemy, much less his girlfriend. They had to fix the issue with the Celestial Dragons too. This could only hurt their efforts. When he finally answered, he stood up straight and tried to look dignified. He wouldn't cower before the dark lord.

"Fine. I'll do it," he said, his voice resentful and unwilling. Chase stood absolutely motionless, as if he couldn't have cared less about their deal. Raimundo blinked and the sorcerer was gone.

"What have I done?" The boy whispered, his eyes fixed intently on the spot where Chase Young vanished.

**I can has reviews? I can't believe I typed that...whoever created that thingy needs to be taught a nice lesson in grammar. May I please have a review? I will bestow upon you a blueberry scone in exchange. **


	6. Disquiet

**Hey everybody. I'm sorry to make you wait. Doubly sorry to make you wait for a bad chapter. Thanks go to Amuletspade, The Anonymous Candybar and Healingspringwaters. You guys made writing this chapter worth it. I just have one thing to say though. You can give characters a break? This wasn't in my authors handbook at all! Oh...I have last years edition...well...this is embarressing...and now for something totally different...**

**Disclaimer: That fetal pig in a jar is still there. I still own nothing. **

_**Disquiet**_

"I am so sorry to interrupt your beauty sleep, and believe me you kids need it, but I believe we have an appointment with a weir gate that can't possibly be missed," a familiar contralto said through the temple PA. Kimiko groaned. It was bad enough that they were being woken up at four in the morning, but by someone who sounded like they were enjoying it was another matter entirely.

She rolled out of bed, pulled on a green mid-thigh length dress, black leggings, and ballet flats, and picked up her bag, her sore muscles protesting every step of the way. The last week of training had been brutal both mentally and physically. She hadn't made contact with Ignatius since the first day and was rather grateful for that. The Fire dragon scared her with his smooth, persuasive voice.

Physical training was actually easier than that. At least when Rai wasn't acting over protective. Every single time she tripped or stubbed her toe he was all over her making sure she was unquestionably okay. It got so annoying that she didn't bother trying to correct Omi when he asked Rai to back off by saying that she had "the decidedly unfemale trait of being able to take care of herself."

"Come on. London's calling," the sorceress said, trotting into the dorm.

"London? I thought we were using the Hong Kong gate," Dojo said as he and Guan entered behind her.

"I'm registered out of London and Guan's registered out of Kathmandu. If we wanted to use the Hong Kong gate, we'd have to go through weeks of paperwork and Kathmandu's off line for maintenance," she said, running a hand through her hair. "Now all of you, in the courtyard ASAimidiately."

She dragged her suitcase into the courtyard amid Dojo's grumbling about carrying everyone's stuff.

"What's with the gates?" Rai asked, still wearing his pajamas.

"The council building is located between this realm and the spirit world. We have to use weir gates in order to enter it. Sorcerers, wizards, and other magical beings have to register with a gate office in order to use that weir gate," Guan said as the five of them leapt to Dojo's back.

The flight was uneventful, if a bit boring. Rai tried to start a game of spoons, but Dojo put a stop to that claiming that it was going to give him a red spot far worse than any Shen Gong Wu. Min went on ahead half way through the flight and was waiting for them on the roof of an otherwise normal looking office building, clutching a cup of coffee in her hand when they landed.

The seven of them proceeded down a sketchy fire escape for a few floors until they went through a side door into a luxurious lobby. A small reception desk sat in front of a simple dark wood door. After a few minutes of gossiping with the receptionist while filling out paperwork, the sorceress handed them what looked like keycards and shooed them through the door.

On the other side of the door, there was a short hallway with a checkerboard of black and white marble tile flooring. There was an elegantly carved, sand colored marble door at the other end with an out of place looking keypad next to it.

"Alright boy, a leader is first into battle and last in retreat, you first." The sorceress mimed swiping the card on the keypad and Raimundo copied her motion. The stone door swung open to reveal a swirling purple vortex. He gave the group a cocky grin before stepping into the portal backwards and disappeared as the door swung shut.

Omi went next, followed by Clay and Dojo. all three of them went through the door without a hitch. However, when Kimiko tried to swipe her key card, the door didn't open. She kept trying, but nothing happened.

"It's going to take forever to get a new card," the sorceress said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Why don't you go on ahead and show the boys to their rooms?"

"I insist. You have to prepare for your tribunal." It was nice to hear that she wasn't the only one who trusted Minerva like a dingo with a baby.

"Infuriating Wolfram's such fun though. He'll be absolutely livid if I show up late," she said. "Besides, the gate locks once I use my card." The last part was added on almost like an afterthought, but the tone was just icy enough to convince Guan to back down.

Almost as soon as the monk stepped through, the sorceress pulled another ice white key card out of her purse. "This is your working key card. It's yours provided you cooperate." For some reason, Kimiko wasn't all that surprised at this.

"And if I don't?" She asked, trying to copy the old woman's cold steel tone.

"Eh. It's no matter to me. Your boyfriend might be a little miffed though." Rai couldn't have anything to do with this. As weird as he had been acting this week, sneaking off during break periods to do Dashi knows what, he definitely wasn't up to anything sinister. "Besides, if you don't I'd have to give back that lovely amulet and I don't particularly want to do that."

"Fine," she snarled. The sorceress crossed the hallway in two strides and wound up uncomfortably close to her face. Kimiko moved her hands in preparation for a counter strike.

"Bast, relax girl. You act like I'm about to brainwash you or something," she laughed. She reached towards Kimiko's hair and plucked a single strand from her ponytail. She stepped away, took another black hair out of her purse, and twisted the two strands together before cutting them with a deadly looking silver knife.

Kimiko felt like a string tying her to something far away had snapped. It was at the same time isolating and relieving. "What did you do?" She asked, not wanting another month of thinking about just how tasty the road kill looked.

"I dulled your sorcerous powers so you don't call too much attention to yourself. I don't want everyone all over me asking if I think you'll be as good as Chase and you're not using them anyways," she said, handing her the card. Kimiko took it reluctantly and proceeded through the cold marble door.

As she entered the portal, she couldn't help but think the sorceress was lying. There was something more behind her actions.

"Kim, we are going to go exploring later," Rai said, almost as soon as she stepped out of the vortex.

They were in long narrow hallway, the walls covered in doors identical to the one they just came through. Only this time with plaques with city names above the door frames.

She couldn't figure out just what it was that made the boy who spent all of last week sulking about everything turn back into the excitable boy she knew. "What is it?" She asked, smiling in spite of the weirdness she just went through.

"I'll show you," he took her hand and led her out of the door room. They stepped into a brightly lit white stone dome. A sky light at the top let in sunlight, illuminating scenes painted on the ceiling and walls. A lively fountain played in the center of the dome, ivy crept up the walls, and elegantly carved torches flickered around the room.

"This is amazing," she said, taking in the roman style architecture. People milled about around the fountain along with fantastic creatures, some of which she had only read about in books. Centaurs in business suits clip-clopped off to who knows where, a man with a bushy beard wearing a pink floral dress and top hat sat calmly reading the morning paper in a floating armchair, while all manner of winged creatures looped lazily through the air.

"I know, and Guan said that this is only the beginning," he said, still grinning like an idiot while walking over to Omi, Clay, Dojo and the older monk. "We're supposed to get a tour later and we're finally getting the recognition we deserve in the form of a banquet later."

_So those lunch lectures on salad forks finally come in handy_, she thought, rolling her eyes. At least she would get an excuse to dress up.

Guan led them through blue and tan stone hallways to a suit of rooms connected to one large private common room. "This is where we'll be staying. Your keys are on the table." They each went up to take a key with labeled with their name in impossibly tiny, but neat handwriting.

They unlocked the doors and almost in sync exclaimed: "Most wonderful." "Way cool." "Well if that don't beat all." and "Why is there never a bed?"

Her room was decorated in pale orange and yellow, with accents of vibrant red. There was an ornate desk in a corner and a fire dancing happily in the hearth. A balcony framed by smoky black curtains looked outwards to a field of glowing black and red crystals among lava flows. Although like Raimundo said, a bed was mysteriously absent.

"Alright you lot. Your guide's here," the sorceress said, dashing through the common room and into her own chamber. "I want you back here no later than five. The four of you will not, under any circumstances, be late for the banquet."

Kimiko put her suitcase in a corner by a dark wood wardrobe and exited the room to see a familiar friendly face. Gerry was sitting in the middle of the common room, looking far more relaxed than he did in the temple courtyard.

"Lovely to have you here," he said, lurching to his feet. If his beak could have formed a smile, she swore it would have. "I suppose we'll start our tour of the council complex in the Roman Wing."

"I am most eager to see how people less versed in the Xiaolin arts could fly," Omi said. Raimundo slapped himself in the face in response and she and Clay began to clue the round headed monk in on alternate definitions.

They went through courtyards and archways, Gerry narrating every step of the way. Coming from most others, it would have been insufferably boring, but his cheerful, unassuming manner made him easy to listen to. They went through areas with architecture in Egyptian, Victorian, Japanese, Arabian, and many more styles.

People would occasionally stop and stare at the four of them. She smiled warily back at them, unused to people paying so much attention to her because of being a dragon.

They stopped for late lunch at a small café in a Parisian section and she marveled at how the council complex ran more like a city than a government building. The five of them hung around, their tour more or less finished and not particularly wanting to go back for training.

They had enough time to check out a few shops and explore the library before they had to go back and prepare for the banquet. Guan was meditating in the common room and the sorceress was lounging on a divan, shooting bolts of magical energy at the wall, burning a wadjet eye into the stone.

"It's about time you showed up. I was getting bored," she said, sending a final bolt into the pupil.

"Ya know, when most people are bored they get a crossword or somethin'," Clay whispered, and she and Rai snickered a little.

"I have ears you know. Now, be ready in an hour," she said, shooing them towards their rooms.

"Thank you Gerry for bringing our warriors back on time," Guan said, standing up.

"Any time. They're much easier to work with than most of the council apprentices," he said, scratching behind his ears with a large paw.

"Can't imagine they'd be worse than Wolfram's new brat. I can't believe that the boy's supposed to be facing him. What did he have to do to pull that off?" The sorceress said. Kimiko shut her door, drowning out their water cooler talk.

She pulled a dull gold halter dress and a pair of bronze, wedged sandals out of her suitcase. She changed into those and pulled some bangles onto her wrist. As she pinned her hair into an elegant half-pony, she couldn't help but feel nervous about tonight. She liked the council building, and most of the people she talked to had been nice enough, but it was what the sorceress said earlier that unnerved her.

"_I don't want everyone all over me asking if I think you'll be as good as Chase." _She worried that everybody would only see her as a sorceress, not as Kimiko or even as dragon of Fire. She worried that everyone would only see someone who'd been taken over by evil.

As she fastened a champagne colored crystal pendant around her neck, she heard a knock at the door. "Come on Kim. We already know you're going to be beautiful," Rai said. She stepped out the door and into her friends on the other side.

They looked so strange dressed up for a formal occasion. Omi wore a monks robe rippled with blue to look almost like water and looked every bit the dignified dragon. Clay lacked his usual hat and his usually messy hair was combed neatly, but somehow managed to pull off cowboy boots with a suit. Rai looked magnificent, his brown hair in tasteful disarray and wearing a black suit. Of course, Rai being Rai just had to pick the goofiest tie in the world. Green with mystery machine like flowers.

"I promised myself I wouldn't cry. Let's just get one picture before going," Dojo said, sitting atop the coffee table and holding a camera. The four of them posed together, and the little dragon snapped off a quick succession of photos.

"As good as they're ever going to get," the shape shifter said, giving them an appraising look, and applying a last touch of eyeliner.

The four of them just ignored her and posed for one last jokey photo before heading out. "Let's show these stage magicians what a Xiaolin Party's like," Rai said, sounding excited about tonight.

"Rai, last time the temple let us throw a party, it wasn't exactly the greatest hoedown," Clay said. She had to admit, most of what they did was essentially training with loud music.

"You know what I mean," he said, shaking his head.

**Again, I'm sorry this is so horrible. Please flame me for it. Even if you don't, please take with you some tea biscuits. **


	7. Deceit

**Hello everybody. I've survived AP tests and managed to write more of this nonsense. This actually came out more fluffy than I intended. I blame prom fever. Thanks to AmuletSpade and HealingSpringWaters for your wonderful reviews! I'm glad you guys liked the architecture. And now for something totally different...**

**Disclaimer: Through the blue paint killer, the miniture killer, DJK, Grissom's retirement, Langston, and much much more, the fetal pig in a jar has still been there. I will only own Xiaolin Showdown if it leaves. And it won't. Ever. It will displease me notibly if it does. **

_**Deceit**_

"I told you you could dance," Kimiko whispered, pulling closer to him.

"This isn't dancing. This is swaying back and forth out of sync with the music and occasionally nearly stepping on your feet," he replied, smiling at her, but refusing to be wrong.

"It's close enough. You haven't broken me yet," she said, caressing the burn scar on his face. _No,_ he thought, smiling despite the irony of the situation,_ I'm doing something far worse than a few bruised toes._

"There's still time," he said, his voice taking on a jokingly malicious tone to cover up how he really felt.

He didn't regret getting the box. He didn't doubt Chase would keep up his end of the bargain. He worried about the others finding out though. He could imagine Master Fung's disappointed look, not mad, not judging, just disappointed. He couldn't let the old master down. Not again.

"I am absolutely terrified of you and that incredibly threatening tie," she said, grinning right back.

"I swear by my pretty floral tie, I will end you," he said, playing with a strand of her hair.

"I'd love to see you try," she put her hands on his shoulders, leaned up, and kissed him. That was enough to convince him that he was doing the right thing. Keeping her, and the rest of the team, safe was so important.

He went down into the vault the night before they left. There was a little carving of a dragon in flight at the very bottom with the words "To open the Dragon's Gate, bear your soul before the Gatekeeper," scrawled in barely legible Chinese characters. He paced back and forth down there for a while, trying to figure it out, terrified of being found, before using his powers on the wall.

For one heart stopping moment, his hand turned the same translucent silver as it did before, but then it turned back and the wall in front of him melted away. The space behind it was small, cramped, just enough room for a stone pedestal and the small box atop it. He took the box and as soon as it left its plinth, the wall returned to its proper formation. The dark wood box, and the deep blue crystal sphere inside it, was currently buried inside his suitcase. He was going to keep up his part of the bargain tonight.

It was too soon when the song changed and they split up for now, her to continue dancing to the now considerably faster music and him to keep the world safe from his flailing. He stood off to the side, watching his team.

Clay was talking to a girl by the food table, Omi was trying to convince the musicians to play something that quite probably no one would recognize, Dojo attempted to bring back disco, Guan was talking with a group of people and creatures next to a fountain. Pretty much normal stuff.

"Enjoying yourself boy?" Minerva said, gliding up to him, wearing a jet-black Egyptian style dress, a glass of blood red wine in one hand. For once, she sounded sincere in her enquiry.

"Yeah," he replied, surprised that he meant it.

"Good to know. Have you checked out the food yet?" She asked. "Somebody thought it would be funny to hex the cake to disappear whenever someone tried to cut a slice." He bit back a laugh, but she looked exasperated by this. "And then those chefs thought that tossed salads would go great with scrambled eggs."

"Why are you telling me this?" He asked, more than a bit confused as to why she was here rather than socializing with other sorcerers.

"Because I'm technically forbidden from talking to anyone interesting until my tribunal's over. It's basically you children or Wolfram. As asinine as the four of you are, you're still preferable to him," she said, rolling her eyes as if it were something he should have already known. "And by the way boy, there's a lovely couple on the terrace who want a chat with you."

"And if I don't want to talk with them unless I know what it's about?" He asked, if it was what he thought it was about he needed to run back to his room for a moment. If it wasn't he might miss his chance to carry out his bargain.

"Then you've broken your word. While I have no issues with dishonesty, I think certain individuals will be notably displeased by this. I don't think you'll be too happy about it either," she said, fiddling with her silver ankh pendant.

"By certain people you mean Chase Young." Not a question, a statement of fact. She shrugged and he gave a resigned sigh. He wanted this entire matter over with. Although she was wrong about one thing. He had no problem double crossing Chase so long as he knew that his part of their deal was fulfilled.

"No idea. Would you like me to come with you?"

"I can handle a couple cats. I'm not totally incompetent," he said, walking towards the rooms. A sharp eyebrow raised in a questioning manner. He was unsure if she was asking if he was incompetent or if he could handle the cats.

He dawdled on his way to his room, needing to know if Chase had kept up his part before he could give up the orb. Of course, there would be no chance of that unless he gave it up. Opening his suitcase, his fingers found the cool, smooth wooden box. He hadn't noticed the carving of the dragon on top before. Although before he had been in a rush to hide it.

One last peek at the orb inside, its deep blue color shimmered in the dim light. It reminded him of Omi for some reason. Like when he got into one of those determined moods trying to think of a new way to combat evil and all of a sudden seemed so much older than his fifteen years.

He quietly slipped back into the party, the small box concealed under his coat. Nobody noticed him; he looked just like any other apprentice here. His team was doing what they were before he left. It made him feel better in a way to see that everybody else was unaware of this. That he kept them out of harm's way in this situation. That he could handle things on his own.

The terrace was relatively large, with the only way back into the ballroom being a small archway in the center. It was poorly lit, save for a few Witch's lights darting about here and there, bathing potted plants in pale light. It was completely empty and even the sound of music from only a few feet away sounded unnaturally quiet. Like he was in another place, completely isolated from anyone who could help if things went wrong.

Just as he was about to leave, thinking that he went to the wrong terrace, two figures move out of the shadows. One of them a man about the same height as Guan, although a bit rangier with shaggy hair that was either light brown or dirty blond. He held his left arm at an odd angle, like it was in a sling. The other one was a woman about a head shorter than her companion. She had pale blond hair and a thin, delicate build, but an almost imperial bearing.

"It's about time you showed up. It's chilly out here and Gawain and I wanted at least one dance before we have to go," the woman said, gesturing for him to come to them, away from prying eyes. He did so wordlessly and held out the box.

The man reached for it with his good arm, but at the last possible second, Raimundo snatched it back. "Show me Chase made good on his end, I'll make good on mine."

"Ask the sorceress," Gawain said, his voice sounding coolly indifferent, but his eyes told him a different story. If looks could kill, he would be a smudge of blood on the wrought iron railing.

"She lies," he said, putting on the "you're not worth my time" mask that Minerva and Chase had mastered. Just because he was giving in, it didn't mean that he had to go easily.

"As do you young dragon," the woman said, moving closer to him. The light from the witch's lights dancing off a silver dagger in her hand. "You're lying to the rest of the young monks right now. Why don't you just end the lie and give us the box?"

"Why don't you go back to your master without this because I'm not going to give it to you without proof," he said, summoning a bit of wind just in case he needed to defend himself. Gawain let out a catlike hiss, but made no other move.

"We can't prove this to you boy, but you can't afford not to give us the box if we're lying," Gawain snarled, looking for all the world like a predator about to pounce. "You struck me dishonorably in battle. If anyone here is not to be trusted it is you."

"Gawain," the woman said, putting a hand on his good arm. The tension in his body released a little.

"Ragnelle," he said back, almost as if asking permission to attack him. She shook her head so slightly that if he wasn't looking he wouldn't have noticed. He gave a little sigh and relented.

"We don't want to fight you about this, but we will if you have to." The expression on the man's face said otherwise. "We just want the box and our dance then we'll be on our way."

She held out her hand and after a moment's hesitation, he gave her the box. She put it into her purse and the two warriors walked by him into the ballroom, hand in hand. "They're playing our song," Gawain said, putting his good arm around Ragnelle's waist as they heard the opening chords of a medieval ballad.

He slipped back into the room behind them and almost immediately ran into Omi. "Raimundo, Master Monk Guan, Minerva, and Dojo want to talk to us back in the rooms right away."

"What for?" He asked, perhaps sounding a bit more jumpy than he meant to.

"I do not know. They just told me to find you and come back to the rooms," he said as they picked their way back through the crowd. "What were you doing out there in the first place?"

"I wanted some fresh air. It's an oven in here," he said, trying to sound casual. It was a reasonable excuse given the combined body heat of countless magi. He hoped Omi would buy it.

"I fail to see how kitchen appliances are relevant to the situation," the smaller monk said, as they left the ballroom.

"He's gotta be doing this on purpose," he whispered and then continued in a louder tone so Omi could hear. "It's wicked hot in there. I went to the terrace because it's much cooler out there."

The younger monk indicated his understanding and they proceeded to the rooms. Guan was standing by one of the windows, looking up at unfamiliar constellations with his hands clasped behind his back. Dojo was curled up on the coffee table, nibbling a cookie, and the sorceress paced the room with surprising manic energy for someone wearing stilettos. Kim and Clay relaxed on the sofa, both of them looking as confused as to why they were here as he was.

"Gods damn it you're still alive. I was hoping we could get rid of at least one of you horrid children tonight," Minerva said as he sat down next to Kimiko. He couldn't help but notice the same flash of worry cross her face as did just after she put herself between him and Chase.

"Sorry to disappoint you," he said rolling his eyes and putting his arm around Kimiko's shoulders.

"Sorry implies you'll try not to do it again, now on to business," she said, continuing to pace.

"Tomorrow one of you will face the trials to enter the spirit realm," Guan said, turning towards them and coming closer to the center of the room. He really hoped they wouldn't pick him. He didn't think he could take the extra stress.

"What sort of trials are we talkin' about? Is it like a showdown or somethin'?" Clay asked.

"Nothing so complicated," Guan said.

"You just need to beat the ever loving snot out of a council apprentice," Dojo said, not looking away from the cookie.

"Wolfram's apprentice specifically so we want to make sure you make it sting," the sorceress said, a look of vindictive glee coming on her face.

"It doesn't matter if it stings or not. We just need to make sure that you know what to expect tomorrow," Guan said, sounding more than a bit exasperated. "Desmond is fast, agile, and highly skilled in martial arts. He is a worthy opponent, but one that you can readily handle."

"The biggest threat is his mouth. He'll talk you off your feet before he ends you," she said. "Now, this may very well be his downfall. The boy tends to do best when he can frustrate his opponent, but when they don't react he falls apart."

"This was the primary factor in deciding who will undergo the trial tomorrow. So congratulations Clay. I know you will make the temple very proud," the monk said. The cowboy looked surprised as the rest of the warriors congratulated him and wished him luck tomorrow. Raimundo was happy to see that for once, the fate of the world rested not in his, but in the Texan's quite capable hands.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

Quiet laughter filled the entry hall as Gawain and Ragnelle twirled into the lair. The two lovebirds danced to unheard music until a quiet cough from Chase stilled them.

"I trust you were successful," Chase said, holding out his hand for the box. The two warriors sighed in sync, their moment successfully broken. Ragnelle took the box from her purse and handed it to the sorcerer before Gawain danced her off in the direction of their room.

"Finally," Wuya said, examining the simple box. "I thought they'd forgotten."

Chase didn't respond, just opened the box. A deep blue orb slid out of the box and zoomed over to the area of the entry hall where the other orbs were cordoned off. Without being bound in their cage, they whizzed about the palace, breaking vases and just in general aggravating the occupants of the lair.

"All that remains is to complete the ritual. I just wish we had Jack to unlock the cage." They both laughed at the last bit, as the orbs would be even worse now that they had the fourth one.

The two of them crossed the beige stone floor and Chase flipped the latch. Almost instantly, the three orbs contained in the cage flew from their bounds.

"Catch them," he said, jumping up for the gray and blue orbs. She leapt for the other two and they placed the four of them into a cauldron. As soon as they were in the cauldron, the unruly orbs became docile.

The two Heylins stood on opposite sides of the black cauldron and clasped hands. His amber eyes met with her green ones, and they began to chant. The orbs rose into the air and began to move in a great circle. The colors merged, creating a halo of white light over the Heylins. Beams of light fell from the halo to the edges of the room and formed into pillars, and the pillars into a light cage around the pair. As soon as it all started, it all stopped.

The light retreated into one shining white ball and descended to head height. The newly formed white orb hummed with magical energy, making her hair stand on end. "After fifteen hundred years…" she whispered.

"The dragon orb is forged anew." He said, finishing her sentence and pulling her close.

**So, I've decided to leave a cake out for you. If you review, you get non-dissappearing cake. Or tossed salads and scrambled eggs. I personally prefer the tossed salads and scrambled eggs. Please take them. I don't know what to do with those tossed salads and scrambled eggs. **


	8. Catalyst

**Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, I am not dead. Between finals and work, this update took far too long to finish. On the topic of finals, most awkward exam question ever. "Compare the socioeconomic status of migrant workers in the twenties with the socioeconomic status of migrants at the start of the industrial revoloution." It was like the teacher knew that I used socioeconomics as an inuendo. Never mind that, back on topic. Thanks to Amuletspade, Healingspringwaters, and xXxTDIAngelxXx for reviewing this and thanks to SS Mahana for reviewing Talk You Down. And now...a disclaimer**

**Disclaimer: I'm thinking of buying a plot bunny farm in upstate New York. The only problem with that being that it would be populated with Yankees fans (no offense) and that I lack the Xiaolin Showdown nessesscary to make a plot bunny farm run properly. So, I will not buy my bunny farm as I lack ownership of Xiaolin Showdown.**

_**Catalyst**_

"I am seriously rethinking my bet," Dojo said, nervously wringing a slip of paper in his hands. The dragon hadn't let anyone see whom he bet on and even if he had, Clay couldn't see any reason for his worry. Both competitors looked to be evenly matched.

Minerva and Guan agreed to fight a demonstration match before he went up against Desmond later. So far, nobody had taken a clear advantage. Guan was much stronger and he'd kept his skills razor sharp over fifteen hundred years. Minerva hadn't, but she was quick and craftier than an old coyote.

It started out slowly, both of them standing motionless on either side of the arena, neither willing to give up the first move. Then, when it seemed like the assembled crowd would burst from the tension, they attacked together.

For the last hour, they'd circled around each other, neither managing to make a significant hit. Guans perfectly blocking lightning fast moves, Minerva always darting just out of reach at the last moment. They were asked to demonstrate their abilities, and they were determined to put on a show. He could have done without the sorceress's trash talk though. Most of it was said too quietly for people to hear, but an occasional sarcastic remark still reached their ears. None of it seemed to have any effect on Guan though.

"Is he seeing something we're not?" Kimiko asked, leaning forwards on the railing to get a better look. The dragon obviously was or he wouldn't be slithering around the wrought iron railing like a half-crazed rattler.

"I don't know. I feel like I'm supposed to be learning somethin' from this." He hoped that he would learn why they picked him over Rai, or even Omi. He'd asked Guan, but he said that he already knew. Minerva made some sarcastic quip about really liking his hat. Dojo was too worried about his bet going south to answer with more than an angry mutter about long odds.

"Clay, stop worrying. You'll do fine," Rai said, putting his feet on the chair in front of him and knocking Clay's hat forwards.

Clay tipped his hat back just in time to see everything change. The sorceress had made one cocky, underhanded move too many and Guan had her in a hold. This time it looked like she wouldn't be able to wriggle out. Just when it looked to be all over, a bemused expression crossed Minerva's face.

"Oooh, the ever effective Hawk Grip. Chase taught you that one didn't he?" she said, not bothering with a whisper this time. He knew this remark hit a nerve none of the others had and it showed. Guan's grip went just slack enough for her to flip away, a bored expression on her face.

Perhaps emboldened by her small victory, perhaps thinking that Guan would still be shell-shocked, she abandoned her usual roundabout style of fighting for a final frontal assault. For a moment it looked like it might work, but Guan stopped her hand just before it struck his chest.

Using a throw he showed them earlier this week, Guan sent the shape shifter flying. She twisted midair and landed catlike on her feet. For a moment, she looked like she was going to resume her offensive, but she bowed her head so slightly that it was almost invisible to indicate her defeat.

There was a polite round of applause and Dojo let out a cheer and began to dart back and forth along their section of railing, ecstatically babbling about easy money. Suddenly, the dragon slipped from the railing and landed on the ground, scratching furiously.

"This isn't funny Dashi," he said, rubbing his back on a rusty section of railing. "I'm sorry kiddos, but I've got a four alarm Wu alert."

"Why now?" Rai muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose with one hand and picking Dojo up with the other.

"What shall we do?" Omi asked.

"We're going to get allergy cream, then we're going to get a keycard, then we're going on a retrieval mission. In that order," Dojo said, snatching a straw from a neighboring spectator's lemonade for use as a back scratcher. The wizard give them an angry look and they booked it out of there and to the area under the stadium where Guan and Minerva were waiting.

"Speedy lot aren't you?" the sorceress said standing by a wall and sipping tea from a bone china cup.

"Sorry mam. We had to rescue Dojo from an angry feller," he said, tipping his hat.

"And I had to save the Bright King of Rokeia from the Antarctic Kingdom," she said, rolling her eyes.

"No really," Dojo said. "I had to relieve my Shen Gong Wu rash somehow. By the way, we need your keycard."

"Can it wait until after the match?" Guan asked.

"Three words," Dojo said, holding up three scaly fingers. "Cube of Dashi." Both immortals paled upon hearing this and Minerva practically threw her purse to the dragon.

"This cannot fall into the hands of evil. Go young monks," Guan said. "You haven't a moment to lose."

"But what about the match?" Kimiko asked. He had to admit he was thinking the same thing. He still wasn't sold on the idea of fighting to get them into the spirit realm, but if he had to he didn't want to postpone it any longer.

"Of course you can stay, because we need a cheering section more than we need to keep this Wu away from Rusty," She said, examining her nails.

"You guys go on. I'll be fine," he said, hoping diffuse any potential situation. Rai was normally pretty laid back about things, but he, Omi, and Kimiko knew that he was stressed about something and it was only a matter of time until he lost it.

"You sure dude?" Rai asked.

"Y'all don't need me to open a can of whoop ass on ol' Jack," he said. In reality, he would have rather gone with his friends, but this was more important. So with reluctant goodbyes, heartfelt wishes of good luck, and one "remove his stockings" that he assumed was "knock his socks off", Dojo and the rest of the monks left to retrieve the Wu.

"The rules of combat are fairly simple," Guan said, breaking the silence that had fallen over them since the rest of the team had left. "The fight is to the surrender, although disqualifications will be made for drawn blood, broke bones, or any other forms of maiming your opponent. Also, you will rely purely on your martial arts skills, with no powers permitted."

"Just like sparring," he said, trying to reassure himself.

"Yeah sure. Only instead of your friends you're facing a kid who has no reason to take it easy on you and whose mentor thinks he can compete with me," the sorceress said, sounding perfectly bored with the idea. "Other than that and that the fate of the world is effectively in your hands, just like sparring. No pressure Cowboy."

"You have five minutes to prepare as you see fit," Guan said. "It would be longer, but I'm afraid we took more time than we should have."

"No problem. That's more than enough time," he said. In reality, he wished it were more, but complaining wouldn't help anything and besides, this guy couldn't be any more difficult to beat than Chase. He didn't do much during the prep time, mostly just paced around the small room growing more and more nervous by the moment.

When it finally came time for them to go, the old monk and the sorceress led him up to the arena. The sorceress immediately went to a chair in an area off to the side, being careful to sit as far as possible from a man in white robes, and pulled out a book.

"One final word of advice," Guan said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Relax." With that, he went and sat by the sorceress, giving her a gentle nudge to tell her to put the book down which she ignored.

The cowboy took a deep breath to calm his nerves and walked through the white limestone doorway into the arena. The other boy was already there, leaning casually on a wall on the other side. Upon seeing his opponent enter the ring, the boy loped to the center of the arena.

He looked to be about the same height as Raimundo, only a little more wiry. When they both reached the center of the ring, the other boy held out his hand for him to shake. "Desmond O'Reilly," he said. His voice carried with it a very prominent Boston accent.

"Clay Bailey," he said, shaking the other boy's hand.

"Nice to meet you. Nice hat by the way. Ten gallons right?" He said, backing away. Clay was about to answer when he was cut off. "Always more of a Red Sox cap guy myself, but hey to each his own." And with that, the boy made a good attempt to sweep kick his feet.

Clay jumped the kick and responded with one of his own. Desmond dodged and continued talking about baseball caps, which changed into a rant about baseball in general while he threw a two fingered strike at the cowboy. Clay blocked and countered, his fist grazing his opponent's shoulder, earning a comment about the Bruins and the Stanley Cup.

They were both moving fairly slowly, getting used to each other and their strengths and weaknesses. It was a bit odd to fight without powers, but he figured he could get used to it quickly enough. A quick jump kick and the other boy stumbled backwards. He caught himself on his hands flipped back to use an open palmed strike.

By the time they really got going, he was beginning to wonder if the other guy ever shut up. Every blow, dodge, and block brought a new odd topic of conversation. Typically related to Boston sports. It was kind of odd having such an irrelevant opponent, but it wasn't that bad compared to the Heylins. Besides, he hadn't kept up on baseball stats what with saving the world and all.

He deflected a strike from the left, but in the process opened himself up to a quick jab from the right. He was beginning to think that the immortals had made the wrong choice. Rai, Kimiko, or Omi would have ended this. They could have kept up with this sort of speed. Another comment about the relative suckyness of the Yankees and a barely avoided blow to the knee later, and he was sure of this.

Sure, he was strong, but he could neither land a blow nor properly dodge. He wasn't going to surrender though. The fate of the world was in his hands. It was like juggling pigs, difficult and concentration intensive, but once you figured out the trick, dead simple. Trouble was, he hadn't figured Desmond's trick yet. All he knew was that after listening to this guy, he and Kimiko could no longer make jokes about Raimundo having ADHD.

However, when his left hook hit home and the Bostonian responded with a frustrated comment about Modern Family, he understood at least one of his problems. The night before the sorceress said that the other boy's mouth was his greatest weapon and weakness. The other three would have been distracted by the attempted banter. Raimundo would have joined in the conversation and the battle would have become an unending talk about Revolution soccer. Kimiko would have lost her temper with how incredibly annoying he was. Omi would have just been confused with the constant references to modern culture. He was indifferent to it, which was making the other boy slowly lose it.

He knew the trick. That was all it really took. The more he ignored the other boy's comments, the sloppier his form got. After a while longer, he realized just how easy it was to side step and strike the other boy. His comments were also becoming gradually less irrelevant and more insulting too.

"Come on hat for brains. Is that all you got? My kid sister hits harder than that," he said, flipping to his feet after a sweep kick. "Although admittedly, she's the one who showed me the terrifying power of unicorns in pink tutus and oversized textbooks. I'm telling you, there's nothing scarier than a tea party with super smart unicorns."

He had to agree with him there. Jessie had gone through a very brief princess phase, the memory of those two weeks still haunted him to this day. Then she'd gone back to learning to fix tractors. He couldn't show that he agreed though. That would just set him back to where he started.

"What? Horse got your tongue?" A poorly executed jump kick came from the left, Clay caught his foot and used the same throw Guan used on Minerva. Although like the sorceress, Desmond managed right himself in the air, he lacked her judgment to know when the battle was effectively over. He shot to his feet almost immediately after hitting the stadium's sandy floor and began another charge.

When he started, they were both on opposite sides of the circular arena, himself not ten feet away from the sandy tan wall. That fact alone gave him an idea. The other boy was closing the distance between them fast, but Clay stood his ground. He just had to stay put and let the laws of physics do their work.

Desmond was getting closer now, he had to fight the urge to counter attack. That would mess everything up. _Closer, just a little closer, please just move a little faster, _he thought, biting his lip and hoping that this would work. Finally, it was the do or die moment. In the split second before the other boy hit him, Clay stepped aside and let inertia carry the motormouth into the wall.

For a moment, he sat stunned on the ground, and then he slowly got to his feet. Only instead of resuming his attack, the boy bowed slightly before extending his hand in defeat. A great cheer went up from the crowd and he was reminded of Friday night football games. Just like a winning touchdown.

"Nice match," Desmond said, shaking his hand.

"Same to you," he replied. The two of them walked back out of the arena and back to their respective mentors.

"You should be very proud of yourself," Guan said as they left the room and headed out to wait for the others.

"Yes, congratulations, you've achieved mediocrity," the sorceress said. "Although the look on Wolfram's face was quite satisfying."

"Honestly, I'm just happy to be around people who know the golden rule," he said.

"Do onto others as you would have done onto yourself?" Guan said, sounding slightly confused.

"No. It's whoever has the gold makes the rules," Minerva said, rolling her eyes.

"Silence is golden," Clay said.

**Seeing as my disclaimer lacked a CSI reference...the powers of the adorkable Greg Sanders and texan Nick Stokes command you to review.**


	9. Faultlines

**Hi everybody. What's this? A reasonably quick update! Le Gasp! No really, I just felt inspired this week. Too hot to go outside. The weather just hates me doesn't it. Okay, back on topic. I appologize in advance if this chapter sucks. It feels a bit rushed and Rai kind of feels OCC. Anywho, thanks to Rebecca, AmuletSpade (BTW, I'm so stealing someone calling Min Minnie for The Way We Were), Mr. Unsmiley (Thanks for appreciating my occasional corny moments. I get worried that people won't like those bits.), and TDIAngel for your reviews. I would also like to thank everyone who is still reviewing, favoriting, and setting alerts for Sky Heart. And thanks to everybody who has read, favorited, or set an alert for Talk You Down. **

**Disclaimer: It's late where I am, I have drivers Ed tomorrow, and I may be out of CSI related jokes. Screw funny disclaimers. I own nothing.**

**_Faultlines_ **

"What exactly does the Cube of Dashi do?" Omi asked, unrolling the scroll of the Shen Gong Wu. After a horrifying trip through what Dojo called "bureaucratic red tape" – which was odd in that it was neither red, tape, nor resembled a piece of furniture- in order to get clearance on their keycard, they were finally on their way to Spain.

At first, it looked like they weren't going to get through, seeing as none of them looked like the picture of the sorceress on the keycard and she apparently hadn't mentioned anything to the receptionist about Raimundo being her apprentice. It took one surprisingly angry tirade from Raimundo to get them through the London door.

"It goes through your opponent's mind, examining every corner of their brain, and then it creates something that is uniquely designed to be the most annoying thing in the world to them," Dojo said. "Grand Master Dashi may have been a brilliant man, but he had a real immature sense of humor."

"What's the worst that can happen? We lived through Good Jack," Rai said, clutching at Dojo's scales as he flew at definitely unsafe speeds.

"This is worse than Good Jack," Dojo said, somehow managing to accelerate even more. "We need to get it. Just picture regular Jack with the ability to become even more annoying than he already is."

"Is that even physically possible?" Kimiko asked, rolling her eyes.

"Well, when you give him the Monkey Staff…" Omi said, planning on explaining how truly aggravating Jack with that particular Wu could be.

"Rhetorical question Omi," Kimiko said, cutting him off.

"But I was going to use rhetoric to answer it," he protested.

"Both of you shut up or, so help me Dashi, I will turn this gecko around. Don't think I won't," Raimundo said, laughing a bit, but somehow sounding less like he was joking than usual. He'd been on a short fuse all morning. Probably related to being passed over for today's match. Although he'd seemed very jumpy and hasty to explain things last night too. Maybe something happened to unsettle him.

"I'd like to see you try," Dojo said, beginning to descend into the mountains. "And what have I said about calling me a gecko?"

A few minutes later, they landed in a wooded valley and went in search of the Wu. Dojo scampered along the forest floor, occasionally tripping over a root or rock while distracted with the scent of the Wu. The chirping of birds fit the largely joking mood of the group.

It felt good to be on a Wu hunt again. It had only been about a week since the last one, but it had been a very long week. To Omi anyway, everybody seemed more relaxed away from the council building. Even he was unsettled by the events of late. The stress of it all had set the landing of his leopard strike an average of three millimeters to the right of where it was supposed to be.

He rolled a log over, looking for the cube. Nothing.

"Wrong direction kiddo," Dojo said, starting to scramble up a cliff face, but slid back down before he could get far. "If not for these trees I could fly you kids up there. You're going to have to get up there on your own. I don't have enough space for a takeoff."

The dragon started up the rocks again, this time with the three monks following close behind. His fingers slipped a bit on a ledge, but he quickly managed to pull himself up and scramble higher, a spray of pebbles slipping down behind him. Mosses and lichens dotted the crag, giving the otherwise drab gray rocks a purple and green blotchy, almost camouflaged look.

Raimundo and Kimiko were close behind him when he made it to a wide overhang with a little cave at the back.

"Yep this is it," Dojo said, pulling himself over the precipice. "I don't remember it being so hard to get to though."

"Then we must investigate," Omi said, wanting to bolt ahead into the cave, but knowing that it would probably be better to go slowly in case of villains or unstable rocks.

Kimiko made a small flame in her hand and led the way into the cave. It wasn't that deep, maybe only a hundred feet to the back. A little pool of water formed at the back from dripping stalactites and behind that there was a pile of rocks leaning up against the cave wall. The firelight danced across the stones, casting menacing shadows on the cave floor. For a moment, the shadows combined with a familiar agitated "run hand through hair" gesture made Raimundo look very similar to Chase.

They followed Dojo to the back of the cave where the dragon was reaching into the pool. "No good. Stubby little dragon arms." He gestured to what looked like a purple rock through the distortion from the ripples.

"Let me give it a shot," Raimundo said, rolling up the sleeve on his shirt before reaching into the water. "Damn, that's deeper than it looks." He pulled his arm out and shook off droplets of water.

"Allow me," he said, gesturing for his friends to step aside. "Wudai Neptune, Water." The stone cube rose to the surface of the pool and Omi took it from the water. As they turned around and began to walk out of the cave, he was overcome by the feeling that this was all too easy. Jack should have at least gone through the motions of putting up a fight.

As usual, upon exiting the cave his tiger instincts were proven correct. At the edge of the cliff, there was a bat like aircraft and a pair of irate looking immortal Heylins. Just as the three monks fell into defensive stances, a pale hand reached down from above and touched the purple cube.

"Omi, I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown trio," Jack said, making an attempt to control the helibot while flying upside-down. "Us three against you three."

"The three of you against the three of us," Chase corrected, pinching the bridge of his nose. It struck Omi as odd that he was participating in the showdown. Although he was probably just as eager to keep Jack away from the Wu as anyone else.

For a moment, Jack looked a bit down that he had earned the disproval of his idol, but he quickly snapped back to normal. "Our Ring of Isildur, Moby Morpher, and Reversing Mirror against your Sword of the Storm, Quill of the Bard, and Mantis Flip Coin."

"We have neither the Sword of the Storm, nor the Quill of the Bard with us today," he said.

"Fine, then what do you have?" Jack said, turning over midair so that he was standing on the ledge.

"We have the Shroud of Shadows and the Lotus Twister," he said.

"We'll take that. The game's a race to the top of the cliff. First group with two of their three people to the top wins," he said.

"We accept," Omi said. Around him, the scenery shifted for the showdown. The cliffs grew and separated into three rock walls. He found himself standing next to Jack on a small ledge, Kimiko was likewise paired up with Wuya, and Raimundo with Chase.

"Gong Yi Tan Pi," the six of them said simultaneously.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

"Get ready to lose you overgrown lizard," Raimundo said, using the Mantis Flip Coin to start moving up the cliff. He had to scramble a bit to get a hand hold on the almost glassy rock, but weeks of practice on the sheer climbing wall in Minerva's obstacle course were finally paying off.

"I may lack Dojo's uniquely violent reaction to being called a lizard, but I do resent the notion that I will lose," Chase said, not far below him.

Raimundo's hand slipped on a patch of moss and slid down a few feet, before he used a combination of his powers and a crack in the rock to catch himself. He started to haul himself up the cliff again, this time testing every hand and foothold before climbing higher. He'd never been rock climbing before, this was probably a bad introduction.

In spite of the early lead he'd gained, Chase was catching up. Although admittedly, the dragon of the Wind was taking his time moving up the cliff. He had to move faster. Simple matter. Speed was his middle name. Right after Inigo.

It only took a fraction of a second to check which outcrops would hold his weight, and even if it didn't, his used his powers to keep himself pressed against the wall and occasionally help him make a difficult jump between ledges.

"I am going to find the Sands of Time," he said through gritted teeth. "And then I'm going to travel back, and meet whatever moron decided it would be a good idea to go crawling up a big pile of rocks, and punch them in the face." He pulled himself up another couple of feet and tried to ignore his beginning to turn raw hands

He glanced up for a second, it was perhaps another twenty feet to a wide overhang and beyond that another ten to the finish. A quick look to the side told him that Chase was just about level with him on the far side of the rock face.

By the time he was halfway to the overhang, the warlock had passed him and was already over the ledge, but didn't appear to be interested in climbing any further. At the base of the ledge, he realized that he was going to have to let go with his feet before continuing over. To even reach the overhang, he'd have to jump back and hope for the best. He took a deep breath to relax before springing back.

For one moment, his fingers brushed the edge of the outcrop, but before he could get a grip, he fell. A split second before he summoned a wind to keep himself in the game, the falling sensation stopped. He looked up to see Chase holding his wrist. Seconds later, the older man had pulled him up to the ledge and twisted his arm behind his back.

"I can't have this ending so easily. I mean really, what kind of person would I be if I let a worthy opponent fall rather than defeat him myself?" He said, knowing full well that if he let go Raimundo would fly to the top. He was surprised to hear the sincerity in his voice when Chase called him a worthy opponent though.

"I guess we're at a stalemate then. You can't win without letting go, you let go and I win," Raimundo said, trying to sound cool, calm, and collected. "It'll be over soon enough anyway." He couldn't see them, but Omi and Kim had to be doing well.

"Your faith in your friends is touching to say the least," Chase said. "But enough about them, let's talk about you and me. You've proven to be a most trustworthy assistant."

"Sorry to impress you," he said, struggling against Chase's grip.

"Sorry implies that you'll try not to do it again," he said, not letting go. "Seeing as the last one went so well, what do you say we make another little deal? I let you and the other dragons win the showdown and in return I receive the Mantis Flip Coin."

"I'm not going to be your errand boy. Jack said two out of three. Omi and Kim will win their showdowns and I won't even need to beat your sorry ass," he said. Surprisingly, Chase let go after he said this. It took him all of a moment to jump away and yell out, "Shoku Storm, Wind."

"Reversing Mirror," Chase said, almost offhandedly. With that, Raimundo fell to the ledge. "Let's watch shall we." Raimundo turned in the direction of the other showdowns, admittedly curious about the outcomes and eager to prove Chase wrong.

"Spicer is failing as expected, so you were at least half right. I'll give you that," he said. Jack was currently clinging for his life to a branch about halfway up the cliff, while Omi was only a few feet from the finish. The smile forming on his face fell when he saw the other showdown. Kim was clinging to a ledge similar to the one he was currently on and Wuya was almost to the top.

"Even without powers, the witch has a special talent with rocks. She knows exactly where the cracks are and how to best use them. It's nice to see it put to good use for once instead of pointing out the flaws in my countertops and random DIY projects around the lair," he said, sounding a bit less irate than when he normally talked about Wuya. "Now what do you say to our deal?"

"I told you, I'm done being your errand boy," he said, casually leaning on the cliff.

"Of course you're not going to be an errand boy. That's Jack's job. You're more like a sales person," Chase said, copying his pose. "I need your answer now else I will defeat you. As I demonstrated before, your powers won't be of any help to you."

Raimundo had to weigh the options again. This time, the stakes weren't as high, but he wasn't sure if it was worth another deal with Chase. He never had an interest in Shen Gong Wu. If he wanted one, it had to be for an important reason. Strangely enough, he was winning before he stopped to make this deal. That made him think that it wasn't so much the Wu, but the deal itself that he wanted. But if he said yes, then the Xiaolin Temple would gain two powerful Wu and really, it was in exchange for the Mantis Flip Coin. It wasn't like Chase actually needed it. Although again, if Chase wanted it, it was for some dark purpose.

Light glinted off the Reversing Mirror in the sorcerer's hand and suddenly Raimundo had an idea. He would have to be fast to pull it off though. He waited for a moment where Chase was distracted watching the other two Showdowns before lunging for the Mirror.

"How very predictable," Chase said, pulling the Mirror out of reach at the last moment. The wasted inertia caused Raimundo to land on his hands and knees on the overhang.

He picked himself back up, dusted himself off and leapt for the rock face. He only had approximately ten feet to cover. It would be over in a heartbeat. Or it could be over in a heartbeat. Before he could even get a firm handhold, Chase grabbed his ankle and pulled him back down.

"This is my final offer. Do you accept my conditions or not?" he asked, still sounding so unfazed and polite.

"Fine," he said seeing no other options. He pulled himself to his feet just in time for Chase to begin to attack. His heart wasn't in it though, his goal being to lose. One pass in particular seemed very off. Raimundo simply sidestepped it and the warlock went over the side of the cliff, a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

A few minutes later, he was at the top of his cliff and the showdown collapsed in on itself. Raimundo collected the Wu, careful to conceal the Mantis Flip Coin in the palm of his hand, and passed them to Dojo.

"You fought well young dragon. It was an honor," Chase said, for once telling the truth. He extended his hand for Raimundo to shake and he did so, in the process passing off the Mantis Flip Coin. With that, the two immortals vanished and Jack drove off in the bizarre bat bot.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

"What I'm wondering about is why he caught you," Dojo said, speeding back towards London after a brief detour to return the Wu to the Xiaolin Temple. Omi had been wondering the same thing. It wasn't like Chase to let a victory slip through his fingers.

"I don't know. I think he just got bored and got cocky," Raimundo said, lying back on the dragon.

"What did he say to you anyway? I mean, the two of you were up there not doing much of anything for a while," the dragon continued.

"Just usual villain gloating," he said with a shrug. "Nothing out of the ordinary."

The only problem with that was that "nothing out of the ordinary" for Chase usually meant an attempt at changing someone's allegiances. His defeat seemed oddly easy too. Perhaps the reasons for Raimundo's recent unease lay on the Heylin side.

Omi forced that thought from his head. Raimundo was his leader and his friend. It wasn't even remotely strange for a Heylin to gloat, and everyone had an off day. Even the great Chase Young.

_**X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X**_

"So I suppose a temple raid is out of the question without the ring," Jack said, nervously fiddling with the windshield wipers on the Batbot. Flying through clouds never agreed with his poor hovercraft. Nor did flying with a slightly claustrophobic witch and a robot hating sorcerer.

"I told you already, it's not a toy and will not be treated as such," Chase said, rolling his eyes. "Besides, it will cause more harm with the monks and we got what we came for."

"The Mantis Flip Coin?" Jack asked, more than a little bit confused.

"Keeping you becoming even more annoying," Wuya said, in a perfect dead pan.

**Reviews Please! They make me quite happy and when I'm happy I'm inspired and when I'm inspired I update faster and when I update faster you get a chapter earlier, ergo, you are happy. And so the moral of the story is: always know which door leads to the arguement clinic and which door leads to belittlement. And on your way out, check out my crack pairing contest! **


	10. The Elegant Universe

**Hi everybody. I know, another reasonably timed update. I must be sick or something. And changing the subject, I figured the last chapter would get more reviews...any one care to tell me where I went wrong on this one? Major thanks to Amulet Spade for reviewing that chapter (Nobody outside of me and my version of Microsoft Word will ever know Chase's evil schemes. Yes. That's right schemes. That's all you're getting out of me). Thanks also to the anonymous reviewer who reviewed Talk You Down (note, that will never be updated. It is a oneshot. It ended sadly because when I tried to write a happy ending it didn't feel right.) **

**On another note, I'm going to be away for three weeks. I've got Soccer Camp, then Science Camp, then two back to back two day horseshows. I'll try to write out a chapter in my notebook though and get it typed up as soon as possible. **

**Disclaimer: The radioactive pig in a jar outlasted Grissom. It's not going anywhere. I will never own Xiaolin Showdown. **

_**The Elegant Universe**_

The door was surprisingly small, someone of Clay, or even Rai's height would have had to stoop to enter. It was simple too. Just a plain dark wood door to nowhere set in a beige stone frame in the center of the room.

"You kids are going to make Master Fung so proud," Dojo said, lying calmly on the marbled floor.

"Provided you're not turned into dragon food," Minerva said, a sarcastic smirk on her face. Guan shot her a glare and the sorceress rolled her eyes. "What? It's a valid possibility."

"Be that as it may, the time has come for the four of you to enter the spirit world," Guan said. "Unlike the YinYang world, you will be subject to the laws of physics, but the dragons are not. Your powers will also stop working the closer you get to the dragons. That's not the most difficult part though." He went quiet for a moment, as if this was a bit difficult to talk about.

"In there you're completely alone. You go in expecting to have a friend by your side for at least part of the way, but that's not the case," he said. "You are used to operating as a unit. Being truly alone for the first time is unnerving to say the least."

Kimiko didn't like the idea of being alone, and she could tell the others were wary of being split up too, but if it was necessary to keep the world safe then she would do it. She wasn't about to even consider risking the safety of the world over slight nerves.

Rai stepped forwards, volunteering to go through first. "Sorry boy. Dragons of the Wind are inherently cowards. We go last," the sorceress said, fiddling with the cuff on her black pant suit.

She could practically feel Raimundo tense up at being called a coward. She put a hand on his upper arm, but he gently pulled away.

"Omi," Dojo said, slithering forward. "I don't know much about controlling the elements, only what I've learned from watching you kids and these old codgers, but I do know that Dashi always said that water needs change. Without change, it becomes stagnant. Kiddo, you've got big shoes to fill. Good thing your feet are still growing."

With that, the little dragon gestured for Omi to go through the door. Omi opened it, and she was surprised to see not another world, but the other side of the room. However, when he stepped through, he vanished.

"Clay, you did well today," Guan said. "I know it's not in the nature of Earth dragons to fight, but we can when pushed. Don't let Gaia push you around." The Texan went through the door and left her and Raimundo alone in the room with the immortals.

"Kimiko, I believe that honesty is the best policy," Guan said, looking directly at the sorceress as he said the last five words. "So I'm going to tell you up front, these words are not from us."

Minerva shot him an irate look before beginning to speak. "Everybody tells you that fire is about passion. They don't tell you about the focus that you need. Any fool can use fire. It takes a true master to focus it and use it effectively." She knew these were Chase's words, but knew from experience that they were absolutely true.

She gave Rai a quick kiss and he held her for a moment, both of them reluctant to let go.

"Kim, promise me you'll be careful in there," he whispered to her.

"I will if you will," she said, smiling. "Seriously Rai, we've dealt with hundreds of end of the world scenarios. It's going to take more than a stupid gecko to break me."

"Tough little phoenix aren't you?" he said, playing with a strand of her hair. "I'm serious here Kim. Don't do anything I would do and I won't do it either."

"Oh look, our Shoku's making his first nonsensical wise proverb," she said, grinning at him. "So we have a deal then."

Then she walked forwards, not hesitating when she pushed the door open. Looking through, all she saw was the other side of the room. As soon as she stepped through, the scenery changed.

She was alone in the middle of a vast desert. She knelt down, took a handful of sand, and let it run through her fingers. In spite of the bright sun, the position of which put the time as about noon, it felt cool. Her powers were still working. She had no idea which way to go though.

Forwards was as good a direction as any. Besides, the red glow on the horizon in front of her might have been an indicator of something. She quickly checked her bag before setting off. Water, granola bars, first aid kit, and a blanket. She wasn't sure how long the water would last and she wished she'd brought sunglasses and sunblock.

At least Minerva's memories were of some use here. She was born and raised in the Egyptian desert. The sand and heat was an old friend to her. She knew that she should be traveling at night, but she knew nothing about this world. Maybe it was never night here.

She knew that she was at least dressed right. Baggy pants and a long sleeved shirt would help with air circulation and strangely enough keep her cool. A hat would have been nice though.

Her feet sank a little into the sand as she walked over the dunes, this was expected though. Wind whipped the sand into her body and constantly changed the landscape. She glanced back over her shoulder upon reaching the top of the first dune. The little stone door was nowhere to be seen.

_**X~X~X~X~X~X~X**_

"Boy," Minerva said, jarring him out of his dreamlike state. "So nice of you to listen. I know you're stressed out about recent events." She sounded like she meant just the Celestial Dragons, but he knew that she was also referring to his problems with Chase. "Wind's good at handling pressure though. The fate of the world is on the line now. Failure is not an option."

"One more thing. I want you to remember this. No matter how she acts, or what she says, Tempestra's not insane," she said. "She'll play with you, try to break you, it'll all look the work of a mad beast, but she's as calculating as I am."

He felt as if he should have known that words of encouragement were too much to expect, but he just had to know one thing. "I have a question." An exasperated expression crossed her face but allowed it anyway. "Do you believe in me?" He had to know if he could handle Tempestra.

She shot Dojo and Guan a pointed look then flicked her head to indicate that they should leave. For a minute, they didn't and she was locked in a staring match with Guan. He looked away first and they left the small room.

"I'm going to be honest with you," she said, her voice grave and her storm cloud eyes unyielding. "No." She stopped to let her words sink in before continuing. "You know who I do believe in?" He shook his head.

"There was this moron once. He was so sure of himself he once ambushed me in order to prove me wrong. If you can find him," she flicked him in the forehead, "then we have a chance against Tempestra, but you no."

"So what you're saying is that we're as good as dead," he said, kicking at the floor. He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at the door.

"Your amazing aural abilities have always astounded me. I never said that," she said, rolling her eyes. "Now go on. Play the hero game and save the world."

"What if I can't?" He asked, more to himself than to her.

"Raimundo," she said. Was he imagining it, or did she just use his name? "If you can't figure out who that moron I was talking about earlier is, then you're a bigger idiot than I think you are. And I think you're a huge, incompetent, idiot."

"Thanks for the encouragement," he said, rolling his eyes. His hand hesitated over the door handle. "And thanks for calling me by my name."

"I did nothing of the sort," she said, her voice fading as he stepped through the door.

He groaned when he saw that he was on another mountain ledge. He'd just gotten done with the whole concept of rock climbing. He glanced up, the grey stone spire rose far beyond the clouds. At least for now he still had his powers. He summoned the most controllable wind he could and started flying towards the top of the spire.

The air was a bit cold as he rose towards the clouds and it smelled of the air right before a rainstorm. There was an electric feel it too. Like socks in the dryer. The charge grew and grew until his hair stood on end. He was unsure if this was a good sign or not. The clouds weren't storm clouds, but it still felt like lightning.

The higher he rose, the slower he went. He knew he needed to use more power. Perhaps because of a lack of practice, it was surprisingly difficult to go faster. He wasn't going to push it though. Losing control in the real world was one thing, but he had no idea what could happen here. As much as he wanted to let go and fly, he couldn't lose control again.

_**X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X**_

A perfect snowflake landed on Omi's nose as he walked across the snowfield. It was strange to see nothing but an unending field of blue and white for miles around. He had no idea how far he'd gone since starting out, no idea how long he'd been walking, but he knew that he was going the right way.

The path before him showed signs of disturbance and the ice beneath him was much thinner than the surrounding ice. Like it'd been broken often by something large moving at high speed. He wasn't worried about this. It was more than thick enough to hold him up.

The spirit world wasn't that bad all things considered. He loved the snow and it wasn't cold. He was the dragon of Water though. He and Kimiko were protected from the extremes in temperature by their elements. He had a warm coat for when his powers stopped working and a little camp stove too. His only concern was that he run out of food or that he would be unable to use water without it freezing.

But he knew that appearances were deceiving. Especially where water was concerned. A placid ocean surface could conceal a deadly riptide, and a winter wonderland could turn out to be an icy deathtrap. So for now, he would ignore the urge to make a snowman and proceed with caution. Even if he did have a perfect set of coal eyes.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

Light filtered through the leaves, bathing everything in an eerie green. It was sort of nice in an odd way. It definitely had a very peaceful feel. Ivy wound around rough barked trees and leaf litter in the trail made each step sound like Dojo with a bag of potato chips.

The trail before him was a bit overgrown, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle with his powers and a little bit of manual labor. Just like gardening. If gardening involved vines that were probably hundreds of years old and refused to leave their patch of dirt, and what looked like sentient poison ivy. Thankfully, the latter plant scurried away when he went to move it.

The further he went along the trail, the quieter the forest became. Whereas before the quiet had been a peaceful sort, birds, creaking trees, normal forest kind of quiet, it was almost too quiet now. The only sound being that of his boots on old leaves. Hell, even mosquitos buzzing would have been welcome.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

"Hey Birdy," Dojo said, upon seeing the sorceress enter the room. "How goes the tribunal?"

"I had the psych exam today," she said, sounding just the slightest bit less bored than usual. "Then I went out for drinks with Niccolo afterwards. Bloody Italian was too cheap for dinner so I'm starved."

"I thought you weren't allowed to talk with people associated with your tribunal," Guan said. Dojo was sick of the whole "who has authority over whom" thing between the two of them. Thinly veiled insults about each other's teaching style and moral code were getting old. If a Wu went active, he'd rather go alone than go on retrieval with both of them.

"I said drinks, not conversation," she said, sitting down on a couch cushion. "Really though, we had a notepad and a pen. And I thought we agreed we weren't going to let the girl know about who really said those words."

"Like I said, honesty is the best policy. I've been around these kids for far longer than you have. Kimiko will be uncomfortable with the news for a few days, but if she found out on her own, and she will, she will quite probably refuse believe a word of it," he said. "What did you say to Raimundo?" An unspoken bargain, one piece of information in exchange for another.

"Exactly what he needed to hear," she said. Dojo suspected "what he needed to hear" probably wasn't pleasant. "Why is it that they always fall apart here?" This last part was added on almost as an afterthought, meant only for her. Dojo remembered the last time they were here. It wasn't at all nice. And not just because of "the incident."

"Because the Dragons make you question everything you ever thought about yourself and you don't always like the answers," Guan said, leaning back in his chair.

"I'd say you can always change the answers, but even I'd call that cheating," she said.

"Personally, I'd call it personal growth," Dojo said from his hammock in the potted plant. He'd seen the current group of Xiaolin Dragons grow over the years from a bunch of misfits into a group whose loyalty ran deep as blood. "This is just like old times isn't it? Friends joking about the fate of the world."

He knew this was the wrong thing to say as he watched their faces fall. Because it wasn't like old times. For their group to really be complete Dashi and –as much as he hated to admit it- Chase would have had to be there. The little dragon smiled thinking about his old friend. Even though Dashi claimed an allergy to laundry, he was the best friend a dragon could ask for.

The sorceress broke the silence first, waving her hand to conjure up three glasses of chardonnay on the coffee table before saying, "To Dashi," while standing and taking her glass. Being a politician by nature, she knew better than to propose a toast to both of them. Especially given that she and Chase were still close. "A man who trusted me when no one else would."

"A brilliant leader and wonderful mentor," Guan said, following suit.

"The only person to ever call the Emperor "pops" and live," Dojo said, recalling hundreds of trips to the palace. The former Water dragon would have appreciated this listed as one of his greatest accomplishments.

The three of them touched glasses, just as his tongue was about to dip into the scarlet liquid, a horrific noise came from Kimiko's room. It appeared that the dragon of Fire left her phone behind.

"Somebody get that," Minerva said, running her hand through her hair.

"I was looking for an update on whether or not Keiko dropped that skater boy anyway," he said, slithering into the room and taking the phone from atop the nightstand. Strangely enough, it wasn't a text with the details of Keiko's romantic life, but a call from the temple.

"Hello, Kimiko's not available right now, but you've got the amazing Dojo here," he said, happy to be hopefully talking to Master Fung for the first time in almost two days.

"Dojo, good. I was afraid Kimiko had taken her phone with her into the spirit world," Master Fung said. From his slightly panicked tone of voice and the shrieking of Master Vic in the background, he could tell that the vault had been broken into. And just when he finished cataloguing the Wu they brought in today. "The Shroud of Shadows and Ring of Isildur are missing from the vault."

**R is for reading this fic, E is for enjoying it, V is for vuvuzelas, which bug me and are irrelevant to the topic at hand, I is for "I've given up caring about making this into an alphabet book and am just going to ask for a review like a normal person." PS. Check out my Crack Contest on your way out. I'm still looking for entries. **


	11. Fire and Ice

**So...this is up far later than promised. Sorry about that. Soccer preseason, AP work, and all that jazz. I've been hard at work though and I think I've created something moderately enjoyable if I do say so myself. In other news, my trainer got a new XC horse, an eight year old gray TB gelding, guess the name. No really, guess. Alright fine I'll tell you. Rio Reverso (we all call him Rio). This fact made me smile quite a lot. Thanks go to Amuletspade and Healingspringwaters for reviewing. You guys make me happier than a Jack with pudding. **

**Disclaimer: New CSI in a month! That means new CSI jokes for you guys! In the meantime, deal with the boring disclaimer of doom. I own nothing.  
**

**_Fire and Ice_  
**

The sun burns on her arms radiated heat in the light of the fading sun. Sand slipped from beneath her shoes with every step she took. Her lips brushed the rim of the last of her water bottles, searching for one last drop. Both in front of and behind her nothing but an endless expanse of sand. The red glow on the horizon grew brighter, stung her eyes more, by the minute.

The first two days here, she'd been fine. Her powers had kept her safe from the extremes in temperature and dehydration. Last night, she'd woken up shivering with cold, the stupid blanket wasn't nearly enough to keep her warm. She'd never really felt cold before. She'd never felt the fury of heat either.

At least at dusk the temperature would be bearable for a little while. She would be better prepared tonight too. She hadn't expected her powers to fail so soon, but she figured that it meant that she was getting close.

Her body shook as she reached the top of yet another dune and she wiped some sweat from her forehead, again, being careful of the burns. She slid down the dune, not wanting to waste time and energy climbing down. At the bottom, she started to untie her shoes to empty them of sand, but thought better of it. There would be no sense of burning her feet off on the blazing sand for momentary comfort. Her eyes moved from her hiking boot to the valley around her and her heart beat a lively jazz tempo.

Not a thousand feet to the left of her -she couldn't believe she hadn't seen it from atop the dune- there was lush green grass, date palms dripping with fruit, and midnight blue water sparkling with the light of ten thousand stars. An oasis in this hell.

The part of her mind not suffering from a combination dehydration or heat induced delirium told her to ignore it. She hadn't seen it earlier and an oasis just when she needed one had to be too good to be true. The clinking of water bottles and the rasping of her dry throat with every breath drowned this out. Without water she was, as Clay would put it, "buzzard bait." That was, of course, assuming that there were buzzards here, which she doubted. There hadn't been another sign of life since she'd entered this desert.

She broke into a light jog, not wanting to waste a second, but at the same time being unable to full out sprint. She could already feel the cool water splashing on her face, washing away days of dirt and grime, and running like liquid ice down her throat. With every step, it was coming closer and closer. One hundred feet, sixty, twenty-five, she never imagined she could miss the taste of water so much, ten, three. Almost there, almost there.

Just as her foot was about to touch the soft grass, the sparkling water and shady trees vanished. Her body went slack and she fell to her hands and knees, no longer caring about the blazing hot sand. She'd been tricked by an illusion. She prided herself on being skeptical, but she'd been taken for a fool.

Howling winds threw sand at her, and for the first time she realized just how alone she was. She'd give anything just to hear another person's voice. She shivered despite the heat, imagining how everyone would react to seeing her now.

_"Would a hug turn your frown front ways up?"_ _"Quiet the storm of your mind." "You were far better off on the Heylin side." "Hey, hey, it's going to be alright. Have a cookie." "Come on! You can't just give in. It's so much fun building the fireproof bots!" __"You gotta get back on the horse little lady."_ "Being an immortal hag's better than having your eyes pecked out by vultures." "In order to be true warriors, we must stand and face our problems." "And here I was thinking the boy was the worthless one." "Ay phoenix. We had a deal. You don't do anything I'd do and I won't do it either. That includes guilt trips."

She dug her hands into the sand, closed her eyes, and shook her head. She couldn't let Ignatius get to her. She wasn't going to break here. She was fire, she wavered, she blazed, but she didn't break. It was just another set back. She was dying, she knew that, but that didn't mean that she couldn't give the old dragon hell first.

She picked herself up, and dusted herself off. A certain dragon was going to regret making her look a fool. He'd played with fire, he was going to get burned. If it was at all possible to burn the ruler of all fire. If not, then she'd be perfectly okay with old fashioned scaly ass kicking.

When she looked for the red glow, she couldn't believe what she saw. The entire horizon was bathed in crimson light. It couldn't be sunset yet. She had at least an hour, she hadn't run that far. She couldn't be that far off course. She whipped around, there were no footprints behind her, no way to tell how far away from the path she was.

A little voice in the back of her head whispered that there was a way to find the path or water. Many of the later memories she saw involved the sorceress failing to cast various tracking spells. That was one of the details of her curse, immune to tracking spells, yet unable to cast them herself. She knew the spells. She knew that she had the power. She also knew that she refused to become like Minerva or Chase.

_"Please. You're going to put your pride over your life? Now _that's_ acting just like them,"_ the voice said. It sounded like hers, but at the same time, a little lower, a little rougher, more forceful, darker.

"No," she whispered. "Besides, she dulled my powers. I can't do anything."

_"She lies as easily as she breathes. Anyway, if you try to cast a spell and she did dull them you're no worse off then you are now," _the voice scolded. _"And you know that losing an argument with yourself is one of the big signs of insanity."_

"Shut up," she said, starting to walk back the way she came. She knew her subconscious was right. There was no guiding light at night and she couldn't make it another day without water. That didn't mean she had to like it. She pulled out one of her water bottles, there were a couple of drops stuck to the side. All she needed.

She'd tried her hardest to forget all of this, so it was difficult to recall even one of the tracking spells. It wasn't ritual magic, so no words would be needed, but she would need absolute focus. She shook the water bottle and droplets fell into her outstretched hand. She focused her thoughts on the droplets. How they felt, how they moved in her hand, just how wonderful water would taste right now.

Pressure built behind her eyes and she felt like her chest was pulled up. She was looking down on a black haired girl with something glistening in her hand. If she could breathe, she would have gasped. Then she was pulled forwards as if on a leash. She flew over dunes, not a long distance, but at the same time certainly not a quick walk. When she finally stopped, she was in the middle of a real oasis. Palm trees, water, grass, and between two of the trees a large hole in the sand. The edges had been turned to glass by intense heat. Just as she was about to peer into the depths, she was snapped back to her body.

She practically collapsed laughing. She was going to make it. The oasis couldn't be more than two hours walk. She was sure she'd found Ignatius's lair too. All that remained was to deal with the dragon and forget the spell. She had worked so hard to build up walls around the sorceress's memories and everything she knew about magic, and now she had to start rebuilding or risk losing herself.

But there was still one small problem nagging at her thoughts. If the sorceress hadn't dulled her powers, what had she done?

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

His fingers were burning. One of the first stages of frostbite. The mittens were of little help there. He was right earlier when he thought not to underestimate the ice. He couldn't see more than two feet before him because of the blizzard. He wanted to stop and rest, but that wasn't an option. If he fell asleep, he might not wake up.

He took a step and sank up to his knee in snow. He wasn't even sure if he was going the right way anymore. He couldn't feel the ice beneath him, couldn't feel the path. He'd lost it sometime earlier today and had just gone straight since then. Even if the path had turned, he would never have known.

He couldn't give up though. He was the chosen one. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat, hoping that they might defrost a little. Not likely, but there was always fuel for the camp stove had turned into an unusable icy slush, so there was no way he was going to warm up that way.

If the snow would let up then he would have a chance. He wasn't in control of the weather though and he doubted Shui would give him that much of a chance. He shivered and kept walking through the snow. This would be much easier if he were just a little taller. Some of the drifts he was walking through were taller than he was.

He put his foot down, it didn't meet snow. Rather it fell into a perfectly foot shaped hole in the snow. He reluctantly removed his right hand from his jacket and felt the snow before him. Another foot shaped hole. This was either a very convenient coincidence or something much worse. He wanted to believe a coincidence, but the evidence pointed elsewhere. He'd been going in circles.

He had no idea for how long. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours. There was no way to tell in the blizzard. He desperately hoped that it hadn't been for a very long time. He couldn't be lost. The fate of the world was in his hands. He couldn't fail now.

He wasn't lost. He'd just taken -as Dojo called it- the "scenic route." He would be back on the path in minutes. He wasn't going to worry about it. He couldn't have made a mistake. He put a hand in front of his eyes to keep help him see a little farther. It didn't help much. Just another six inches of blurry white. It sort of reminded him of the time Raimundo tried to set up the temple TV to get a soccer match.

Once he was sure he wasn't still walking in his own footprints, he put his hand back into his pocket. It wasn't much help, but it was at least something. Walking through the snow was perfect training for the "Toucan doing the Cancan" move too. His landing was three millimeters to the left on that one.

As he moved through the storm, he noticed feeling returning to his fingers. He didn't think he was working that hard. He certainly felt less cold right now. For the first time in ages he could feel his nose. Oddly enough, the farther he walked, the storm weakened to gentle drifting snow. He could actually see where he was going now. The snow was changing too. Where it had been thick and icy before, it was now powdery and light. He sank a bit more, but it was far easier to get out now.

The entire thing was almost becoming enjoyable again. He could almost forget that he was trying to save the world. Almost. His cracked lips began to form a smile, but stopped cold. The ice beneath him was far too thin for him to walk on safely. That wasn't what worried him though. Icy air flew to his lungs as he gasped. He knew how thin the ice was. He'd been going the wrong way.

He couldn't be though. It must have been a trick. He couldn't have made a mistake. He didn't make mistakes. A chill ran through his body as he thought about what that meant for him. He couldn't afford to make mistakes. Not with the world on the line. He had his friends counting on him. They needed him there to...he wasn't even sure what they needed him for anymore.

Raimundo was the leader, he was responsible for them now. Omi accepted that. Kimiko could more than take care of herself in and out of combat. He'd known that for a long time. Clay helped everyone with their problems, not that Omi was very good with personal issues to begin with. All three of them were just as skilled as he was now, so he no longer needed to teach them anything. Any and all training had been turned over to Master Fung, Minerva, and Master Monk Guan. He knew that if they saw him now they'd probably try to encourage him, but he didn't deserve it. He'd failed everybody.

He sank to his knees and he could hear the ice cracking beneath him. Then he fell. He'd known there was no water beneath him. What he was unsure of was how far it was to the floor of the ice cave. The cold air rushed by his face and blue ice rushed up to meet him. That was when survival instincts kicked in and he shifted midair to land on his feet rather than his head. Even with that, he landed hard and sprawled face first on the ground.

He sat up and rubbed his aching nose. This just made things worse. Now he was stuck in an ice cave with no way to get back up. He glanced around and was amazed by what he saw. The ice surrounding him was remarkably thin, but strong. He could see the ocean around him as if through glass. Swirling currents that all seemed to flow the same way. The cave was far larger than he originally thought too. It was more like a tunnel than a cave, and it led the same way as the currents. To the heart of the ocean. To Shui.

So he set off towards the dragon, eager to set his original mistake right.

**This wasn't exactly the best. I did web MD dehydration and hypothermia symptoms, but it was difficult to really get it right in the chapter so I'm sorry for any inaccuracies. I'm also sorry if Omi seems really OOC in this chapter. Out of all the characters, he and Guan are the hardest for me to get right. I don't know why, they just are. Anywho, no more angst. It's fun to give me a R-E-V-I-E-W. That really doesn't fit in with YMCA...I'll find a way to make it fit eventually. **


	12. Order and Chaos

**Hello everybody! Another week, another crap chapter. I'm wicked sorry about the wait. I've had to deal with AP work and all that fun stuff. So, fun story in my life. I'm sitting next to my ex in AP Chem, APUS, and pre calc (god damn alphabetical seating). All three of those teachers have had us before and two of them continually teased us all throughout last year year. This is going to be a _fun _year. Anywho, enough about me and my problems. Spady, I had to make a dark pact with Voldemort, Chase Young, Bad Horse, and my freshman English teacher to get to my level of writing mediocrity. **

**PS, I apologize to any Connecticut natives in my readership. I tagged along on my friend's sister's college visit to Fairfield State. Their Cross Country trail is beautiful, but boring as all get out. It's almost like running laps. With roots. **

**Disclaimer: No. Bad doggy. Stay away from Dr. House. If I own Xiaolin Showdown then Hodges will take over the crime lab and I don't want that to happen. **

_**Order and Chaos**_

The forest seemed almost a little too same. If he hadn't passed an identical grouping of trees a while back, five, six, a dozen times, the gnarled branches and knobby bark would have looked disorderly, but there was a definite pattern in how the trees, and really everything was arranged. The twisted trees, then in another five-ten minutes a group of perfectly aligned elms, then a little later a towering pine, then an hour of walking through patterns of trees, vines, roots, and rocks that he'd seen countless times before, then the twisted trees again. It almost reminded him of a park. Or Connecticut.

If not for the fact that he'd doubled back multiple times and seen the same patterns inverse, he'd be convinced he was going in circles. As it was, it was only disquieting. Especially those bird calls. You could have set your watch to them. Green finch, littent bird, nightingale, then black bird, with many more thrown in. He'd never seen any of the birds, so he wasn't sure if the hawk screech was real, but sure was eerie.

He kept walking, passing the rock shaped like the llama wearing a hat. The first time it'd been interesting, but now it was just another part of the scenery. The same scenery coated in the freaky green light filtering between the leaves. Other than that, it was pitch dark. Pitch dark save for identical bits of ghostly green. After seeing it for so long in so many identical situations it was beginning to lose it's touch. It really only made untangling the thorn vines impeding his progress more difficult. Even the vines seemed to be arranged in a lattice pattern and grow more tangled at a steady rate. At least it was a change in scenery. Albeit a hand slicing and potentially neck breaking one.

He moved a few more vines out of the way, the sharp thorns biting into his hands even through gloves. He heard a rustling noise behind him and whipped around to see the vines behind them snap back into their weave pattern. He felt a faint pressure on his left ankle and barely caught himself from tumbling forwards as another vine snapped back into position. It might have shocked him had it not happened many times before. It was almost like the forest was trying to reorganize itself. Like Omi constantly organizing and cleaning training equipment or Minerva doing just about anything.

A shaft of light turned his hand green as he moved another vine curtain aside. He found himself wholly unprepared for what he saw on the other side. A large clearing with seven perfectly identical paths leading deeper into the forest. He took a few cautious steps towards the one on the far right, figuring that he could always go back if he went the wrong way.

The sound of crunching leaves beneath his boots was broken by a ripping noise and the earth shaking. It was almost like the noise made by the realigning vines, but a little less "frustrated OCD" and more "absolutely furious" that wasn't helped by the sound of the ground beneath him rumbling. He started to turn around to see what it was, but a tremor shook him off balance and he fell on his back. He flinched for a moment, but dragged himself to a sitting position. Where he was just standing, a new wall of vines had risen up. There would be no going back.

He stood up, his hat slightly askew. There was no more room for error. No going back if he picked wrong. He fiddled with his hat as he thought. Seven paths, all of them with the same aspens and oaks and maples, all of them with the same leaf litter carpet, all of them with the same odd rock about a hundred yards down the path. Once he chose, he'd be stuck with it. There had to be something to it. There was always a trick.

He almost started to pace, but didn't for concern that he'd run out of space in the clearing. There wasn't enough information. He had to make the right choice, and he had no idea what he was doing. He couldn't afford to be wrong. He couldn't just pick randomly. There was a one in seven chance of getting it right. That wasn't good enough. There had to be something more to it.

A bird call drifted through the air as faint and eerie as morning mist. Then another, louder this time. Something touched his leg, he glanced down to see vines starting to wind around his ankles. He couldn't move away from it though. That would just cause them to grow faster. A hawk's screech almost made him jump and he could have sworn something flew over his head. There were more bird calls, getting louder, faster, and more angry by the second. Every second he wasted unable to chose he was getting more and more ensnared.

He couldn't think straight with the cacophony. He couldn't just pick one and go with it either. A random guess could be wrong. He had to be sure it was the right choice. Maybe the one on the left, no. It was still exactly the same as the others. Raimundo would have picked by now. He was decisive and quick thinking. He couldn't do that. He had to plan everything and take his time. Kimiko was more logical than their impulsive leader, but she still could make up her mind quick in a crisis. Besides, she was perceptive. She would have noticed something about the paths. A pattern or something. And Omi had those Tiger Instincts, which he'd never seen make a wrong guess.

The vines were up to his knees now and still climbing. There had to be some trick to this. A simple solution to a complex problem. This sure was a complex problem. He just didn't think there was a simple solution for this one. There had to be a pattern. Everything else here followed one. This couldn't be any different. Seven identical paths. Only one could be right.

Every second, the light through the leaves grew brighter, casting long green shadows across the clearing, making each of the seven paths look equally foreboding. He was tempted to make a break for the leftmost path, but he couldn't risk a wrong answer. He had to choose fast though. Soon he wouldn't be able to break out of the vines. There was nothing he could do though. There was no difference between the paths and only one could be right. Making a mistake would be just as bad as not making a decision at all.

He tried to pull some of the vines off his legs. He wasn't about to become a permanent fixture in the landscape, but at the same time, he couldn't make a decision without the information. The vines grew up over his hands, he couldn't get rid of them fast enough. He would have to make a decision now. The left, no maybe the right, the centre, the other right, or maybe the centre left. He took a deep breath. He couldn't afford to waste time. He had to be decisive. The far left path. That was it. He wasn't sure if it was right, but there was as good a chance that it was right as any of the others.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X _**

Rain sloshed into his cave. He didn't really mind though. He'd been soaked through for days now. A little more water didn't really matter. He would have killed for some more space though. He'd been pacing the length of the cave for the last two days and he'd been going crazy.

He couldn't go any farther than this. The other day when his powers gave out he'd fallen for so long he'd almost lost track of time. His powers kicked back in just above the mouth of the cave. This was the highest he could get and not fall back down. Rain made the mountain side too slippery to climb and he didn't trust that ladder outside.

When he woke up this morning, a metal ladder was fixed to the side of the mountain. He didn't touch it though. It had to be Tempestra work. He couldn't trust that. Plus, it was a giant lightning rod. The energy coming off that thing after a bolt was more than enough to make his hair stand on end. He wasn't even touching it then. It was the only way up, but it wasn't safe enough to use. She was probably laughing at him right now. A way to her right in front of him, but he was unable to use it.

Another flash of light, followed almost instantly afterward by a crack of thunder. Sparks of light danced down the ladder, taunting him with how they forbid him from using the only way to Tempestra.

He sat down on a rock ledge and picked up a small rock. He tossed it up in the air and caught it again. It wasn't quite as good as his soccer ball, but it was something mindlessly physical to do. He needed a distraction. Now.

He'd screwed up big time. Given events of late, this was saying something. Maybe if he just pushed himself a little harder. Maybe if he was better suited to be leader. Maybe if he hadn't made that deal with the devil he wouldn't be stuck here. Min was right. He couldn't do this. He couldn't handle Tempestra even if he did manage to get to her.

He couldn't protect his team. He had to rely on Chase feeling charitable to even come close. If not for him screwing up and losing control they wouldn't even be in this mess. He wasn't fit to be leader regardless. The others had probably already dealt with the dragons by now and were waiting for him on the other side of the door. He couldn't keep up his competent facade anymore. They'd know soon enough that he was useless.

Any of them would have made a better leader than he would. Clay was kept calm under pressure and always made sure he had enough information before making a decision. He kept getting cocky and impulsive. Omi was easily the most experienced monk and the most honorable of them all. The kid didn't have an intentionally dishonest bone in his body. Him on the other hand; he'd spent the better part of the last two weeks lying to everybody. They believed in him and he was letting them down. Kimiko was so strong willed, she'd never have let Chase force her into those deals.

He noticed a discolored patch on the wall opposite him. Target practice as a distraction. Perfect. He tossed the rock up and down a few more times, trying to set up a perfect toss. He caught it one final time and threw it with as much force as he could get at the opposite wall. It hit the brownish-gray spot and bounced back towards him.

If he was surprised by a rock bouncing back to him like a tennis ball, he didn't show it. Instead, his hand instinctively reached up to catch it. Of course, the pebble had been sharp and the whole point of tossing it to begin with was to stop thinking. Although in retrospect, he should have seen the rock cutting into his hand coming.

"Son of a bitch," he said through clenched teeth. The rock clattered to the floor as he clutched at his hand. Droplets of blood slipped through his fingers and into one of the countless puddles on the floor. He heard a noise not unlike a nails on a chalkboard coming from the back of the cave. Very big nails on a very big chalkboard. Still clutching his injured hand, he made his way through ankle deep water towards the back. The cave went down as he went deeper in, so the water gradually rose. By the time he finally got to the back, he was swimming.

There was something below him illuminated by a fire somehow burning underwater. He took a deep breath and dove. Oddly enough, he could see under the water. He almost touched the dancing flames, just to see if they were actually fire, but common sense got the better of him. Instead, he looked at the space on the wall illuminated by the red-orange light. When he first glanced at it, it was covered by symbols he recognized from some of Minerva's scrolls. He personally couldn't read the hieroglyphics, but before he could really think about it, they changed to English.

_There are four in this world that rule together. The first runs and never wearies. The second eats and is never full. The third drinks and is always thirsty. The fourth sings a song that is never good._

Below this there were four symbols that he actually knew. Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind. Maybe he had to put them in the right order. The first one could either be wind or water. Earth and fire weren't exactly known for running. He surfaced for air and continued to think about it. While he swam about, he considered the other clues. Water didn't exactly drink, eat, or sing, so it stood to reason that the water symbol would be the first. He dove again and pressed that symbol. It glowed a bright blue-green.

The second clue was probably fire. It would burn until it ran out of fuel. His bloody fingers brushed the carved symbol and it glowed the same red-orange as the flame above it. The next was easily earth. Earth wasn't exactly known for singing. The symbol glowed a forest green and he didn't pause before pressing the wind symbol. Although he was a bit offended by the clue. Before that could really sink in, the wall before him fell away and water rushed through the tunnel and he was swept away by the current.

**Now, how bad was it? I really want to know. Clay has been added to my "list of characters that I cannot write to save my life." And I'm going to pose another question to my readership just because I can. Why exactly did you get into my fic and what keeps you coming back? **

**Now, on your way out, I want you to take an apple pie slice and check out my Crack Fic contest. :)**


	13. Devoir

**Hi everybody! This chapter is a sort of birthday present to myself. I don't normally write anything so Minerva centric, I don't like it and readers tend not to like it, but indulge me. I had to get out two important plot points this chapter and I felt like writing it this way. My only complaint is that effing everybody is really OOC. I hate that everybody is OOC. (headcoffeetable)**

**xXxTDI AngelxXx: Thanks for the review! Life's semi-sane again so updates will probably come more quickly now. :)**

**Spadefire: Yay for band! Fun story, at our last football game (which we lost miserably) we realized that our pep band can't play our school song to save our lives, but will launch into a surprisingly good Hawaii 5-0 or Starlight at the drop of a hat. PS. I don't think Min would go around killing Emma. It'd probably be more along the lines of "Hm...how can I use her to my benefit? Maybe she can teach me that whole "breaking fourth wall" thing." They're both such odd characters, I think it'd be funny to read something where the two of them met. :)**

**Disclaimer: Fun fact, I'm writing this while watching reruns of House. And no. Dr. House Does not have a dog in this one. I don't own anything. **

_**Devoir**_

He rebalanced the original Spear of Guan on the side of the armchair and fiddled with some paperwork before moving his checker. Dojo tugged at one of his ears before jumping his piece.

Just as he was about to get his revenge, the door to the common room creaked open. Dojo growled as the sorceress strode back into the room, practically beaming.

"You didn't have to stay up for me you know. You've missed way worse walks of shame," she said, removing her blazer and laying it on the divan. "This isn't even anything interesting. My tribunal got over late today so Chase and I went out for dinner. Turns out, even after fifteen hundred years, Dashi's chicken jokes still aren't funny."

"This isn't about your coming back late," he said, picking up the paperwork and holding it out to her. "This is about you deliberately messing with paperwork so that the young dragons will remain trapped in the spirit world."

"Okay, admittedly I want to get rid of Raimundo, but with my powers on the line I'm not going to mess with legal documents," she said, looking surprisingly serious for once. He still didn't trust her. One of the worst things about her changing sides was that you typically never saw it coming.

"You insisted that you fill out the paperwork," Dojo growled, surprising fury in his voice. When they'd gotten their copies of the paperwork, the dragon had gone ballistic. Over the course of fifteen hundred years, he'd only seen the dragon this angry once. "Gerry dropped off the copies earlier. You wrote in that five people were going into the spirit realm. Four went in. They're stuck there unless someone else comes out with them."

"Let me take a look at that," she said, snatching the papers from him a bit too quickly for his comfort. She sat down on the arm of his chair and examined the document. Then she gave a quiet giggle.

"This is no laughing matter. You may have very well doomed the world," he said, grabbing his spear. She smirked at him and removed a pen from behind her ear. She removed the cap and made a couple of marks on the page. She put the paper back on the coffee table and gave both of them an irritated look.

"You have to fill out the original forms in your native language. It's then translated and copied by clerks. Most of them are using the magical equivalent of Google Translate. Do you have any idea how often the copies report a few off details?" she said, examining her for once colorless nails. "These basic spelling errors should have tipped you off right away." She pointed them to the paperwork.

Some of the more notable errors included Ricardo Peterson, Xiaolin Trample, and more than a few other number errors. That didn't have him convinced though. Her reasoning seemed almost a little rehearsed. Plus, she'd been very insistent on filling out the papers herself.

"Need I remind you that if I get caught lying on official papers it'll just look worse at my tribunal? I'm rather fond of my powers and I'm not petty enough to risk them for the sake of getting rid of a couple children," she said, standing up and moving one of his checkers.

"Because someone in the midst of an insanity trial is naturally going to make reasonable decisions," Dojo said, glaring at her. She rolled her eyes and flipped from his chair to the divan, sprawled herself out on it, and pulled a book out from under one of the cushions.

"It's just a formality," she said, opening the book. "And even as such, I'd rather not mess this up."

"I'm sure you wouldn't." he said, giving his voice just enough force behind it so that she knew that this wasn't the end of their discussion. She sighed and folded the corner of her page.

"I know you don't like me and let's face it, I don't much like you and keeping my dislike of people a secret is something I'm normally very good at," she said, standing up and looking down her beaky nose at him. Her posture combined with her haughty look made him able to picture, for one of the first times in his life, her as the queen she could have been. "I know I lie rather often, but I'm telling you the truth now. I did not fill out those forms wrong."

"That's good," Dojo said, his voice retaining none of the usual playful humor in his voice. He recognized the tone though. Just like Dashi right before he lost his temper. An icy calm. "But if I find that you've hurt one of those kids," with that, he changed sizes, sending the coffee table, a sofa, and a potted plant flying, and said, smoke billowing from his mouth, "I will end you."

"You won't need to," she said, still completely calm. "I promise you, there's a clerical error. I did not lie on the original paperwork."

He still didn't believe her. Even as an apprentice, he'd looked up to her, but learned early on not to trust anything she said. Some things she said made sense, like she wasn't going to risk her powers for petty reasons and the clerks were notorious for making copy errors, but he normally had a pretty good instinct for when someone wasn't being completely honest. He'd ignored it once and the world had suffered for that.

At the moment though, there would be no way to fix anything even if she had messed about with the dragons. The sorceress had few moments where her heart was in the right place, but keeping her under surveillance would have been better than direct confrontation.

"Dojo, calm yourself," he said, putting a hand on the dragon's head. "It would not be to our benefit to be quarreling amongst ourselves." The sorceress gave a smug grin. "That goes for all of us."

She looked like she was going to retort when there was a knock on the door. "I'll get it," she said, rolling her eyes. "It's Wolfram with tribunal stuff for me to deal with. He's so amusing when he's pissed off. I think that Desmond running into the wall really put him over the edge too. This shall be such fun."

She went to the door and stepped out. As soon as she left, Dojo shifted back to his smaller size. "Do you think she did it?"

"I don't think she lied, but if there isn't something wrong with the paperwork then she might actually be unstable," he said. The archives should have had copies of the originals. He and Dojo would go and check it out tomorrow. If they weren't cleaning up a self-defense killing later.

Wolfram was shouting outside, they couldn't make out what he was saying, but it was clear that he was particularly unhappy with something Minerva was doing. A few minutes later and he went quiet.

Dojo had his ear pinned to the door, trying to figure out what was going on. "I'm not getting anything. You think she's done something else to get herself into more trouble?"

"No. She's too good at working within the rules to deliberately break one," he said. "Besides, she's too fond of her powers to do anything to jeopardize them." Just as he finished speaking, the door slowly swung open. Minerva reentered, looking almost defeated.

"What was that about?" he asked.

"Let's just leave it at I said something that's going to come back and bite someone else in the ass," she said, sitting on her divan and picking up her book. The brief, faint look of frustration on her face was the only hint that there was anything out of the ordinary. After a while of silence she asked, "How do you know that doing something not beneficial to yourself is the right idea?"

He wasn't sure how to answer that one. He'd spent most of his life helping others, as a Xiaolin Dragon, as a monk, as a teacher, so doing something selfless was second nature to him.

"Because it would hurt someone else more not to than it hurts you to do it," Dojo said. He wasn't sure if that was entirely the case. There were a lot of reasons, there just weren't many to convince a self-centered sorceress to do something for someone else. The only way he could give good advice is if she told them exactly what was going on and learning that she was having a problem was farther than he suspected she was totally willing to go.

"I can't tell you that it's the right idea. If you want to do it than that's your choice," he said.

"You see, that's the problem. This isn't my choice. Or it is, it's just that I can't make the proper choice this time," she said, sounding like she was talking about the weather. Surprisingly calm and rational for making a difficult choice. "I'm going to damn myself tomorrow. I need you guys to come with me when I go to the council. As soon as I can think about this I'm going to back out and I can't sign the forms until then. I need to do this."

He knew that there was only one person in the world who could get an even vaguely protective instinct out of her. He was almost about to advocate for her to act like her normal selfish self.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

"Poor Raimundo. So distrustful lately. He really should have taken the ladder," a voice with a heavy southern drawl said as a thoroughly sopping wet boy walked past his perch. "This just makes things easier for me later on." For a moment, it looked almost like the battered Dragon of the Wind heard him, but he continued walking.

He twirled a black glass ring on a vine before letting out a massive laugh. The boy jumped and whipped around. "Who's there?" he asked, his voice shaking, but there was no reply.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

The floor rushed up to meet him. By the time he caught himself, the pain had faded. It was like something being ripped out just above his heart. As suddenly and randomly as it started, it stopped. In a way, it reminded him of snapping a connection between two sorcerers, only more painful. He'd had thousands of connections snapped over the course of fifteen hundred years, and none of them as painful as this.

He'd only maintained a connection with Minerva at the moment. At one point, she'd had the materials needed to snap a sorcerous connection, but she'd used it to break his connection with the girl.

"I told you that step was cracked," Wuya said, helping him up.

"The marble's fine," he said, still slightly confused. It was so strange, the only time he'd felt anything like this was one time where someone he'd had a connection with had lost their powers as a result of a tribunal. It couldn't be that though. He'd seen Minerva only twelve hours ago hitting on a bus boy and hexing a clerk. Besides, her tribunal was a formality.

"Come on. We're going to have to make sure that the orb works properly," he said, his mind not totally on that though. That really was just a spot check. As they walked down to the storeroom, he was planning on how to properly execute his plan with only two magic users. He could be wrong, but it never paid to assume that he was.

**This chapter kind of sucks...Sorry about that. There's birthday cake for you if you tell me just how badly I mangled the characters. Please be nice to a girl on her birthday. Give me review. :)**


	14. Combustion Reaction

**Apparently I'm a washed up has-been. At least according to a reviewer for Critical Point. And I should say I hope so. I just took a shower two hours ago and unless I'm going out and playing in the mud without my knowledge I should hope that I'm still washed up. **

**You have no idea how happy I am to get this chapter up this month. Barely, but it is. :) It was fun to write too. I just want to say that Ignatius is my favorite out of all the dragons because...well I'll let you read and find out. :) (there needs to be a smirking smiley BTW)**

**Spadefire: Thank you so much for the birthday wishes! Good to know somebody at least likes Min too. I've been worried about her going too close to sue territory recently. She's not evil so much as very selfish neutral, but here's a hint for something later. She keeps insisting that she didn't lie on the originals. That's all you're getting out of me this time. Hope you did well at districts. **

**Anon: Thanks for the review, but I just have one question. Why do people keep thinking that I'm pairing people up with Guan? I give no indication that he's paired with anyone much less Min. Besides, I don't think that would work as a relationship anyway. He has much more respect for the fact that she's married than she does. Thanks anyway for the review. :)**

**Disclaimer: I'm honestly not even sure if the pig in jar is still there, but I still own nothing. **

_**Combustion Reaction**_

The red stone surrounding her flashed and flared with swirls of orange and smoky black light. It would almost have been pretty, if not for the oppressive heat. The desert seemed merely unpleasant next to this. She could see the water vapor in her breath turning to steam before her, yet she did not burn. It was all she could do to keep walking.

The oasis seemed to be an eternity past. She wanted to drink again so badly, but she realized that if she opened one of the bottles, it would evaporate before it even touched her lips. She wished she stayed there. The cool shade and sparkling blue water seemed like a utopia in this underground hell.

She could feel it, brushing against her burned fingertips, soothing the blisters, gently lapping against the sand. If she had ever at any point been a pyro, she certainly felt no urge to burn things now. She would make sure that Raimundo knew that she no longer wanted a lighter for her birthday, as handy a weapon it would make.

She was careful not to touch the glass walls again, she'd been burned by them before. She suspected it had at one point been sand, but a combination of heat and magic, had turned it into a crystal clear window to the swirling lava beyond. How this was even working was beyond her.

There was a way she could have made herself comfortable, but she wasn't willing to do that. Sorcery wasn't the answer.

_No, it's the question. And the answer is yes,_ the voice in her head said. She wasn't sure how she'd wound up with such a sarcastic subconscious, but she knew she wasn't going to listen to it. She should have died in these conditions long ago, but she hadn't. Ignatius didn't want her dead, just weak enough to let him go. Unless it was a matter of life and death, sorcery was not an option. What she'd done in the desert was life or death. This was just a matter of comfort.

She kept walking along the tunnel until she came to a black stone door. She gingerly touched it with her burnt fingers and it was cool to the touch. She turned the knob and slowly pushed it open.

On the other side was an opulent sitting room decorated in shades of red, orange, yellow, and gold, with a few smoky black accents. Paintings of deserts and volcanic islands dotted the mango colored walls in extravagantly carved gold frames. Crimson urns containing what looked like fiery peacock feathers stood by the obsidian fire place and coffee table. Her fingers trailed along the arm of a silky yellow chair. She reveled in the smooth fabric. It had been so long since she felt something so luxurious.

"You like it?" a strangely accented voice said. She shook as she turned towards the door and fell into a defensive stance.

Standing by the now closed door was a boy slightly older than she was. He was slightly taller than average, but not by much. He was of average build, but his muscles filled out his dark pinstriped suit well. He had a very handsome face, with a strong jaw, sharp cheekbones, and strangely familiar green eyes, topped by a well groomed, tastefully disarrayed mop of black hair.

"Don't worry firefly," he said, laughing slightly. He had a lopsided grin and gentle laugh. "I don't bite."

"Who are you?" she asked, not wavering from her position. No matter how pretty he was, she had a job to do, and she couldn't do that to Rai.

"I've had a lot of names firefly," he said, striding over to her. She backed away a bit, but she still caught a faint whiff of Drakkar Noir. "Prometheus, Loki, Vulcan, Agni, Eros, and my personal favorite, Apollo, but you can call me Kenneth."

"Alright, Kenneth. Where am I and how do I find Ignatius?" she asked. She didn't expect an answer, and if the boy gave one, she didn't expect it to be true. He was at the very least working for the dragon. She couldn't believe a word he said.

"You're in my sitting room. This reminds me, I didn't offer you a seat. How rude of me. Ignatius won't be bothering us for some time, so please, make yourself at home." With that, he sat himself down in the yellow arm chair and gestured to the matching chair for her to do the same. "Would you like anything to drink? I'd imagine you'd be dying after the corridor from hell."

"It seemed like it was a part of hell. Water would be lovely thank you," she said, sitting in the chair. He snapped his fingers and a glass of water so cold frost formed on the sides appeared on a gold coaster on the coffee table. She picked it up and tasted it, nothing seemed amiss, but she wasn't going to drink it all at once just to be sure.

"You're a worrier aren't you?" he said, looking at her with his jade green eyes. "I didn't poison it if that's what got you jumpy." She couldn't tell if he was lying or not. He didn't look like it, but Minerva didn't either. "So, firefly, you got a name of your own or do I have to give you one?"

One of the few things she did know about magic, it was generally a bad idea to give your name to a flirtatious potential henchman of a dragon. You would either wind up with awkward texts or mind controlled "You can keep calling me firefly."

"Alright then Miss Firefly, what brings you to my hot, stuffy neck of the scorched woods?" he asked, smiling that lopsided smile.

"I'm looking for you master," she said. That adorable smile grew and he began laughing when he heard this.

"He's not my master," he said.

"Well then what is he?" she asked, taking another sip of water.

"It's complicated," he said. "I'd rather not explain now anyway. You do anything for fun aside from trekking through horrid deserts to talk to me?"

"I kick scaly butt and save the world," she said, taking another sip of water. She'd shown no ill effects yet, but it was too soon to really tell.

"Surely that's not all you are," he said, standing and walking towards her. "You look like the type of girl who likes to relax at the end of the day with a nice book while sipping coffee by a fire. I'm sure that under your tightly wound façade there's somebody begging to loosen up." He put a hand on her shoulder and gently began to massage it. "So much tension. What exactly is it that you do to get like this?"

"Spent my time listening to you when I should have been looking for Ignatius," she said, slapping his hand away.

"You're an odd little firefly," he said. "Now what in name of Kilo Joules did you do to your hands?"

"Touched your walls," she said, glaring at him. He still looked back at her with nothing but good nature.

"We can't be having that. Here, let me see." He held out his hand. She refused to respond. "Have I given you any reason to distrust me?" She shook her head. "Well then, let me see." She held out her hands and he gently pulled her to her feet.

He ran his hands over hers and they began to glow crimson. A moment later, the pain left her fingers. "Now was that so hard firefly? I just want to help you if you'll let me."

"How do I find Ignatius then?" she said, looking at his eyes. They almost looked like Raimundo's. If she ignored the rest of him, she could almost imagine that he was.

"You tell me," he said, moving around her and starting on her shoulders again.

"I'm supposed to follow the draw of my powers, but I can't do that now. I've got no idea where I'm going," she said. She had to give him credit, he knew what he was doing with a shoulder massage.

"Well, what're your instincts telling you?"

"I don't know. My head's telling me that there's another way out of this room though and he's there."

"Clever little firefly. Come with me." He stopped rubbing her shoulders and led her to a blank section of wall, his arm draped around her shoulders the whole time. He waved his hand and the wall dissolved. Behind it there was a lava field like the view from her window in the council building. The exact same red and orange crystals, gleaming obsidian, and half-glowing lava flows, with ash gently falling like snow over the whole scene.

"Okay Kenneth, it was nice meeting you, but I've got to go," she said.

"Don't. Please." He sounded like he was pleading. "It's been so long since I've had company. I can't leave this place and I get so lonely here."

"I'm sorry, but I have to find Ignatius. When I do I promise that I'll come back and help you." Those eyes, so full of pain, looked incredibly like Raimundo's.

"At least take me with you," he said, moving his hand down her back to her waist and turning to face her. "I'm a prisoner here. Don't you think I deserve to be free?"

"The fate of many outweighs the fate of one," she said, only half paying attention.

"But what if the fate of many depends on the fate of that one?" he said, bringing his free hand up to caress her face. She brushed it away. She was not going to cheat on Rai with a guy she just met.

"If you're a prisoner, then you have to be here for a reason," she said.

"I'm here because some people were jealous. Is that fair?" He leaned in close, she could smell his cologne. Not so strong as to be offensive, but just enough to smell nice. He was very handsome. That cocky half-smile, the ordered chaos of his hair, his emerald eyes.

"I only know half the story," she said.

"I'm telling you the truth," he said, leaning closer still.

"Not the whole truth."

"We've seen the error of our ways. I want to be free again. I want to feel the sun on my face again. Even if it's just once" He closed the last bit of distance and gently laid his lips on hers. They were soft and smooth and tasted faintly of mint gum, but as pleasant as he was, he wasn't Rai.

"Sorry, but no," she said, shoving him back. "I've got a boyfriend, and even if I didn't I'm not interested."

"Okay fine," he said, shrugging it off like it was nothing. "It was worth a shot. You're a bit young for me and even if you weren't, I don't really do the whole interspecies thing."

"Interspecies thing?" she was incredibly confused by this. He looked human.

"I'm forced to take on an amalgamation of features you find most attractive from people you've seen when first meeting a new dragon. At least this time I got to be my own gender this time. Seriously, first I was some old guy's wife, and then I was a teenage guy's fantasy. Not fun," he said, backing into the lava field, his body rippling and shimmering before her. A moment later, the dragon from the illustration looked back at her, his now mango orange eyes gleaming with bemusement.

"Well, you see that I'm the dragon of Fire again. Are you convinced that the world's in balance?" she said, still really freaked out.

"You know, funny thing is, I really never doubted it. I just want to get out of here," he said, stretching his bat like wings. "Like I said, I've been stuck here alone unless one of the others decides to grace my desert with a visit. You have no idea how much I want to feel real sunlight. What I have here, it's not the same."

"I can't let you go," she said.

"I can give you the world. I can make you flawless," he said, the world melting away around them. She was standing in the temple courtyard again, only it wasn't the courtyard. The bits of missing paving stones were fixed, the badly patched roof was whole again, the disturbingly ugly vases were replaced by a set of beautiful Ming vases, and the crack in the fountain was gone.

"Just imagine, ruling a world without flaws. There's no hunger here, no poverty, no disease, no wars, and it's all yours to bend to your will," he said as she looked around. The sickly tree by the dining hall was healthy and in bloom again. "And yourself just as perfect as the rest of it."

A mirror materialized before her, but it didn't show her reflection. The girl in the mirror was taller, a bit curvier, her hair was undamaged from years of dying and styling, she wasn't covered in sand, soot, and sweat, but she was wearing the same clothes and her bright blue eyes certainly looked like hers.

"There's something missing though…ah yes. One moment please." She heard someone snapping their fingers behind her and her dirty clothes were replaced by a set of what looked like monks robes, but more elegant. They were mostly a red orange color, with black dragons embroidered on the gold trim and when she moved flashes of yellow and crimson played across her body, making her look like she was clothed in flames.

"Now isn't that better? Why don't you try out your powers?" Four training dummies appeared in the courtyard and although she didn't want to do anything Kenneth, or Ignatius, or whatever his name was told her, she wanted to see how you could make powers flawless.

"Wudai Mars, Fire." With as much ease as breathing and almost no mental focus, four perfect streams of flame flew from her fingers to the dummies. Remembering the lava field she'd seen in the vision, she twitched her hand slightly and the flames arched and danced from one dummy to another. It was fascinating, she could have made them dance for her all day, but there was a part of her that wanted to see the rest of this world.

"You know the only thing missing here firefly? Every princess needs her prince." The flames on the dummies shot up and then died down. The ash falling as lightly as snow formed into what looked like Raimundo, but not. He held a bouquet of tiger lilies, yellow and red mottled roses, and some kind of white flower that she couldn't quite name, not one of which had a water spraying attachment.

"Olá bela," he said, holding the flowers out to her. It normally drove her crazy when he spoke portugese because she couldn't understand a word of it, but this time she knew he was saying "hello beautiful." It was nice to know what he was saying, she had to really concentrate to remind herself that this was't real, that no matter how pretty he was, no matter how real he seemed, this wasn't really happening.

"And because two can be as bad as one, you know it's the lonliest number since the number one..." Another finger snapping and the courtyard is filled with people.

A boy of average height with a thick shock of black hair who looked incredibly like Omi. a boy who looked like he was right out of a rodeo ad, probably Clay. The monks milling about the courtyard, all of them looking like a PBS special on monastaries she'd seen once. A beautiful middle-eastern woman sitting with her feet in the fountain and smiling. Master Fung sitting and meditating under the cherry tree rather than eating the cherries. Dojo looked far more regal and intimidating than ever. A good version of Chase laughing at something Guan said. The Jack hovering over the fountain was evil though, there was no way him turning good could end will for anyone. And strangely enough, her parents, together, holding hands and looking more in love than she'd ever seen them.

Their divorce had been amicable, they agreed that they were better off as friends than as a couple, but there was always a little part of her mind that wanted them to get back together. Her mom tried her hardest to not be working for a story in a foreign country at holidays or on her birthday, but being an international reporter made things difficult. There were times when she really just wanted to talk to her mom.

She ran into their open arms, tears pricking at the edge of her eyes even though she knew that this was all an illusion. "Look at how you've grown," her mom said, her blue eyes shining with matching tears. "I remember back when you were the shortest ballerina in your dance class. Where has the time gone?"

"I don't know," she said. "I don't know." She closed her eyes, tried to pretend for a moment that at least this was real. That at least the thought of having a whole family again would be enough for now. She knew that she was being silly, her parents were at least good friends, but it just wasn't the same.

"All of this can be yours," a voice whispered in her ear. "The world, without its flaws. All you have to do is let me go free." She begain to think about it, playing with the flames like a piano, her own body beautiful and without hundreds of little scars gained from training and fighting evil, no problems in the world, her friends without the things that annoyed her, her parents together again. A fairy tale come true.

But fairytales, no matter how beautiful, were not real life. The boy giving her flowers, that wasn't Raimundo. The cowboy and the thick haired monk weren't Clay or Omi. Minerva never smiled like that, especially not in relation to water. Master Fung would never let good cherries go to waste and Dojo didn't take his position as temple guardian that seriously. And no matter how much she wanted it to be so, these weren't her parents. She could't delude herself of that.

"No," she said. "You're not going to be free. No matter what you do, I'm not going to let you go." The area around her vanished and she was back in the sitting room. The dragon before her looked crushed.

"Alright," he said, accepting defeat. "Allow me to escort you back to the door." He knelt down, offering his back for her to ride. She raised on eyebrow and gave him a disgusted look. "Come on firefly. Not like that. I'm a lot of things, but not a sore loser. I'd rather not make you walk through hell again."

"Fine," she said, cautiously leaping to his back. A moment later, he spread his wings and soared towards the obsidian cieling. For a moment, she thought they were going to crash into it, but instead they soared through the stone. They were back in the desert again, flying towards the horizon. They touched down a few minutes later in the soft sand before a simple stone door to nowhere.

"Would it be too much to ask one favor from you?" he asked as she slid from his back. He'd been honerable enough, if a bit of a sleeze, so she nodded yes. "If I take away the sorceress's memories, I mean really take them away, can I have a glimpse of the outside? I give my word I won't leave, I just want a look."

She thought about the way he worded it, just a look in exchange for hundreds of years worth of borderline phsycotic actions. He gave his word that he wouldn't leave, but she wasn't sure if she could trust the word of a dragon.

"Please firefly, I've seen the world change through a looking glass, I want to see it for real, without magic filtering it," he said.

"Fine. I'll hold the door open for a moment on my side, but if you even think of passing through I will end you," she said.

"Fair enough. Come here a moment. I rather like the idea of filling out my half of the bargain," he said, beckoning her closer with his refined talons.

She took a step closer to him and he pressed his nose to her forehead. For a moment, it seemed like nothing happened, but then a comfortable warmth spread throughout her body. It was nothing like the heat of the days past, but rather like coming in from a snowy day to a cup of hot chocolate. A moment later, about a thousand years were taken from her head. She could still remember things, but it was like she was remembering a story someone once told her. Not like before when they were very clearly _her_ memories.

"Thank you," she said, turning the handle on the door and stepping through. She turned back for a momet once she was on the other side, a giant glistening tear rolled down Ignatius's face.

"No, thank you," he said, taking in every detail of the small room before him. After a few seconds, he gave a reluctant nod and she shut the door behind her.

**Okay, good, bad indifferent? Let me know. The review button is your friend as always. Plus, I kind of do want to know why it seems like nobody's reviewing my nonsense anymore. Even if you don't, I've got cranberry orange pancakes here for you to enjoy along with some lovely french vanilla instant coffee.**


	15. Absolute Zero

**Please feel free to shoot me over the late update. And not what our school's wacky drama club is doing with the slushies. Their budget got slashed by the exact same percent as the athletics department, but while for them it means slightly less elaborate costumes and sets for us it means that we have entire programs slashed. Hence why I'm back to soccer after a year of field hockey. Anywho, they're pissed about this and now some of them are trying to protest this and are doing what they call a "reverse glee" where they throw slushies at the athletes to show their disapproval of the budget cuts. Do you know what it takes to get grape slushie out of a white shirt? And whenever one of them gets detention over this, they say that it's "inhibiting their artistic integrity." I know that it's not all of them, heck I'm friends with a couple of people in the drama department, but the ones that are being like this are just getting on my nerves. **

**Anywho, rant over. Happy Happy Fun time with Shui who is much less cool than Ignatius. (And no, not in a literal sense.)**

**Spadefire: Iggy is awesome isn't he? He's that friend that everybody has that flirts for the fun of it and really doesn't mean anything by it. Thanks for defending me and have fun with the hair dye. :)**

**The Critic: Thanks for defending me. I am honestly more amused than offended by the flamer. Let's face it, they're a semi-literate punk at best. It's certainly not enough to get me to disable anonymous reviews. :)**

**Wow. Just Wow: Thanks for imspiring me to spell Rai Ria in THE ADVENTURES OF CHANCE YOUNG. **

**xXxTDI AngelxXx: I. Love. Gold. Stars. Thank you!**

**XboneX: Yay! I'm no longer the wierdo who likes guys in pinstripes! :)**

**Disclaimer: You see that pig over there. It's still in that jar. In that office. I own nothing. **

**_Absolute Zero_**

The glass smooth walls of the ice tunnel reverberated with a low crooning noise. Icebergs breaking and crashng into each other somewhere above him added in the occasional sudden sharp crack. The currents outside swished gently across the ice. He could see the way they danced and played across the paper thin, but all but unbreakable ice. Swirls of blue taunting him with their warmer than freezing temperature.

He couldn't feel his hands anymore and aside from a dull sensation whenever he took a step, his feet were quickly going the same way. So long as he stayed moving he was more or less fine, but if he stopped for even the briefest rest he would begin shivering again. His breath turned to mist before him and obscured his vision. Although not enough to let him ignore the serpentine shadows darting through the water.

There was definitely something down here with him, something big, but as soon as he would turn to look, it would vanish into the blue. He tried to convince himself that it was nothing, just his mind playing tricks on him, but his tiger instincts fought against that idea. There had to be something.

Then from behind him, there was a great boom like the crack of thunder and the ice shook like a piano tuner. There was something. And it probably wasn't friendly.

The paper thin ice no longer seemed so sturdy. Something so fragile couldn't possibly hold him up. Such a thin barrier between him and the ice cold ocean beyond; he couldn't possibly trust it, but he had no other choice. He had to trust that Shui didn't want him dead. The dragon had had plenty of opportunities to kill him, but hadn't. He'd let him live through the blizzard. He'd let him find the way. He'd let something so delicate support him. He didn't want to , but he had to trust the dragon wouldn't kill him given the chance.

Another resounding bang and more tremors. This time, the tunnel shook so badly he was thrown off balance and into the tunnel walls. A shadow fell over him, but he was still too stunned to properly react. His head hurt and his wrist felt like it was on fire. It almost made him want to return to the lost feeling in his arms.

As he slowly dragged himself back to his feet, the shadow darted away, but he still couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. He continued walking, even more nervous than before. He didn't yet know what hid in the placid, playful blue water, although his tiger instincts told him that it was something he didn't want to meet.

He kept walking, this time a little faster than before. He was going to find Shui. It didn't matter that his friends no longer needed him. If they didn't need him to succeed, then he didn't need them. He would succeed on his own as he'd done so many times before. He'd been the one to defeat Hannibal Bean as pure energy. He'd won the first Showdown against Jack Spicer. He'd broken Chases control over the world. He could do this. He wouldn't fail. He wasn't going to let himself fail.

And then it happened. One final thunder crack, he turned around in time to see the shadow swimming away one final time. Thin bone white cracks spider webbed across the surface of the ice cave. For a moment, it seemed like it would hold. Then the end of the tunnel shattered.

"Filho da puta," he said, copying a phrase Raimundo used in such emotionally charged situations as stubbing a toe in the middle of the night or losing a round of Goo Zombies. Just as the words left his mouth, he was swept forwards by the frigid deluge.

He couldn't breathe Even though he had remembered to take a breath before he was hit by the surge; the air was forced from his mouth, the bubbles mixing in with the froth from the turbulent water. He was thrown against the remaining walls of the tunnel, unable to stop himself. He felt so helpless. Tossed like a ragdoll by the thing he used to be able to control so well. He was used to the water being a part of him, something friendly and gentle, but not this.

He saw himself heading towards a jagged section of ice. He wouldn't make it through the impact. He did not flinch. If he was going to die here, he was going to do so with dignity. The distance was closing, ten feet, nine feet, seven, four, three, two, one, but just before he hit the ice, something stopped him. Something had caught the hood of his parka. And just as suddenly as he was stopped, he was dragged along again. He could feel something powerful swimming just above him, holding his parka and taking him to an unknown destination.

He couldn't see what it was, he twisted to see, but couldn't. Blackness was creeping in at the edges of his vision and his lungs began to burn for want of oxygen.

Then a dim light appeared in front of him. It came closer and closer at ever a faster rate. Just when he thought he couldn't go on a moment longer, they broke through the surface of the water and he was hauled onto a sheet of properly solid ice.

Freezing water ran down his face as he realized just how sweet air tasted. He took a few moments to look at his surroundings. He was in what appeared to be an ice bubble, probably about the size of the great hall in the temple with a break in the ice in the floor about ten feet behind him just big enough for a compact boy and whatever it was that carried him through the ocean. Somehow, despite their being no light source, it was bright as day down there. A sharp barking noise broke the erratic rhythm of his breathing; he turned around and saw a sleek dark brown seal twitching its whiskers at him.

It barked again and slid past him into the water, the ripples flowing outwards from where its tail disappeared into the dark blue water. He picked himself up slowly, painfully aware of how his soaking wet clothes were now freezing to his body, and walked towards the hole in the ice. He peered down into the depths, looking for the one other living thing he'd seen for days.

The placid surface of the ocean showed him only his own reflection. Ice formed on his face in swirls and slashes, making his once familiar face look foreign and almost supernatural. He reached up to touch a whisker like streak of ice. He couldn't feel his hand on his skin.

Then in the middle of his forehead a dark spot appeared. He stared intently at it, his dark eyes going crossed so that he could better watch it. It grew bigger and bigger, but he still couldn't make out the shape. It was something big moving towards him fast from the deep water. The water bubbled and frothed madly as the thing rose to the surface. It seemed far bigger and faster than a seal.

He scrambled back just in time to get out of the way of the massive lionesque head burst through the ice. Shui roared and shook his head. Droplets of water flew from his teal and gold whiskers and his dark blue scales shone in the light.

"What brings you here mortal?" he asked. His voice was deep and calm, but with dangerous undertones.

"I am Omi, Xiaolin Dragon of the Water," he said, looking into Shui's pale turquoise eyes. "I am here to tell you that balance has been restored to the world so you have no grounds upon which to escape."

"That's funny," he said, the dark part of his voice coming through in his slight laugh. "I had no intention of using the ground, so I assume that you're telling me that I'm free to go." He hauled a pair of flippers onto the ice, each of them bigger than Omi's entire body.

"Stop turning my words against me," he said, tiredly falling into a defensive stance.

"No matter." The dragon hauled the rest of his serpentine body onto the ice, leaving only his whale like tale in the water. "The world was thrown out of balance. We have earned the right to leave."

"It is not right for you to leave. In fact, it is very wrong indeed," he replied.

"English isn't your first language is it?"

"It creates no difference," he said, trying to make his voice equally threatening. "You will remain here regardless."

"You are the Dragon of Water, and therefore should not be underestimated," he said, swishing his tail back and forth in the water. "However, I assure you, one way or another, I will leave this prison."

"You shall not pass," he said, leveling a glare at the great dragon.

"I admire your courage small one." As Kimiko would say, "the female dog will be bought," or something like it.

"Excuse me esteemed sir," he said, cutting the dragon off. "I believe the word you are looking for is _compact_. And my low center of gravity actually gives me an advantage over larger opponants."

"Scrappy thing aren't you?" he said. "You would be a worthy adversary."

"Then why don't you fight me over your freedom?" he asked.

"I said worthy. I never said you stood a chance," he replied. The were both silent for a while, until Shui broke the calm. "Tell you what, if you're determined to challange me, there's a pearl at the bottom of the ocean. I want you to retrieve it. I'll give you the ability to breath underwater until you begin to ascend. If you survive and bring it to me, I will give this up. You will leave here in my stead and I will even transport you to the door."

"Agreed," he said, holding out one of his hands, not fully aware of how silly he looked expecting the dragon to shake on their deal. The dragon half reluctantly offered one of his flippers and Omi took the tip. They shook on the deal and as soon as Omi let go, he dove into the icy water again.

As soon as he touched the surface, he was aware of his water powers returning to him. The water still retained a frigid edge, but not enough to deter him in the slightest. He found he could see just fine despite the darkness. His hands moved through the water, pulling himself down towards the bottom. He wasn't sure how far it was to the bottom, but Shui promised that he would be able to breath until he started to come up again. The dragon had given his word.

He kept diving; the dark water was disorienting to say the least. He hoped that he wouldn't start ascending by accident. He had to win the bet. The fate of the world depended on it. He kept diving, he couldn't stop now. He'd made the bet and now he had to win.

He dove deeper and deeper, the water becoming ever darker. Every now and then a dark shape would move through the water before him. He hoped that it was the seal rather than Shui.

It was strange to, after what was probably about a week without them, regain his powers. They felt almost foreign to him. His control over the water seemed almost like Raimundo's use of the wind when he first became a dragon. Loose at best.

He began to get worried that he wouldn't be able to surface soon enough. He'd been diving for a while now and he didn't think he could swim for the same amount of time without air. He had to be getting close to the bottom; he could see bits of the floor now. He couldn't see the pearl, but he wasn't that close yet.

Soon, his fingers brushed the rocks at the bottom of the sea. The smooth pebbles mixed with sand in his fingers. The sand mixed in with the roots of a couple hardy strands of brown seaweed. He scanned the ocean floor and instantly his eyes fell on a little white sphere in the middle of some of the weeds.

He swam towards the pearl. His fingers deftly brushed aside the seaweed and he was about to pick it up, but something else caught his eye. Just in front of him, there were two people suspended in the weeds. A Chinese man and woman, each of them probably in their mid to late thirties. They were both short and athletic looking with dark eyes. The woman's black hair billowed about her in the water like a halo and her waterlogged robes dragged her down. The man's bald head took on an almost otherworldly look in the dim light.

For some reason, they looked familiar to him. Almost like a half-remembered dream. He reached his hand out towards the woman and took her hand in his. He definitely knew who she was. He removed the seaweed from around their arms and legs, even if he didn't know them he couldn't just leave them there, and swam a few strokes back. At first, they didn't respond, but then he noticed some movement in their hands.

A moment later, they seemed to snap out of their suspension.

"How long have we been down here?" the woman asked, somehow able to speak underwater.

"I do not know. I found you here and it would be dishonorable to leave people in need," he replied.

"It doesn't matter now. We thank you for saving us honorable stranger," the man said, bowing slightly. "It is strange, forgive me for perhaps being too bold, but even though we have only just met, I feel like I know you from somewhere."

"I know what you mean dear. He almost looks a little like you dear," the woman said, putting her hand on the man's shoulder. "It makes me miss our boy."

"I know. We'll see him soon." He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

"I'm sure Master Fung has been taking good care of him," she said. This was strange, two people who he thought he knew, sad that they left their son with Master Fung, stuck in the spirit world for Dashi knows how long. But they couldn't be. Master Fung told him that he was left on the temple steps as a baby. Master Fung couldn't have lied to him.

"Our little Omi certainly seemed fond of Dojo." His breath left his mouth in a cloud of bubbles.

"Mother? Father?" he gasped. _How can this be? _he thought, _Master Fung said I was abandoned. Why would he lie to me?_

"Son?" she said, looking equally shocked and amazed. "How can this be? The last we saw you, you were just…oh no. No."

"This can't be. Just look at you. We can't have been down here for that long," the man said, sounding, if it was possible underwater, as if he were holding back tears.

He looked at them, so distraught over having left him and felt tears pricking at the edge of his eyes as well. He'd wondered for so long about his parents. He'd spent so much time imagining what they were like. In a way, he'd resigned himself to never knowing his heritage, but now he could speak to his parents, tell them how much he wanted them there.

"I'm so sorry," his mother said. "We did not intend to be gone so long, but Shui tricked us and…I'm just so sorry." She flung her arms around him and enveloped him in a hug. It felt so foreign, but natural and comforting. He'd been hugged by Kimiko before, but that was different. It was like an older sister or a good friend. This felt like home.

"It is alright," he said, the words catching slightly in his throat. "It is not your fault."

His father joined in their hug. "We're here now. The dragon shall pay."

"No dear. Let's just go home and forget this ever happened. The world obviously went on even with our mission incomplete. We can do the same," his mother said. He nodded. They would go back to the temple and he would introduce them to his friends and they would all get long and he would be surrounded by people who cared about him.

The three of them were about to swim towards the surface when he noticed something just slightly off about his mother's face. Something about her nose just didn't look right. He shook his head. It was nothing. They were going to be a family together.

"Are you alright son?" his father asked. He turned to look at him again. The same thing off with his mother's face was off with his father's. It almost looked like he had whiskers.

"It's nothing. I am just so happy to see you again after all these years," he said. He couldn't deny that something seemed off, but it was probably just nerves.

"I know. I was thinking that we would never see you again," his mother said, caressing his head. It was strange, but her hands felt almost webbed. "Now we never have to be apart again."

"We're going to be so happy here," his father said.

"Here?" Omi said, not entirely sure he heard right.

"No silly. Why would we ever stay here?" his mother said, shooting a not entirely missed glare at his father.

"You must have heard wrong," his father laughed. His father's laugh sounded almost a little like a bark. "Let's get going. Shui will know we're gone and will come after us." His father started to swim towards the surface and his mother followed close behind. He waited though. He felt like there was something he was forgetting.

"What are you waiting for?" his mother laughed. She had the same barking laugh as his father.

"Nothing. I'll be right along," he said, beginning to swim towards them.

He glanced back down for a moment and something caught his eye. The pearl. How had he forgotten? Had he let himself get so caught up in the idea of having real parents that he could forget about his mission? He looked back up at them, but they weren't there. Where his parents once were there were now two sleek brown seals twitching their whiskers tauntingly at him.

He could feel his powers leaving him again. He looked at the pearl again, he had to get it. He started to swim back down again, faster and with more purpose this time. He reached the sea floor and scooped it up along with a handful of sand and rocks and flipped around to begin his trip to the surface.

His body cut through the water, but he could already feel himself tiring. Even though it wasn't real, he would have loved another hug from what for a few minute he thought was his mother. He kept going. He had to succeed. He couldn't let himself fail again. Couldn't let himself get distracted again.

His lungs began to burn, but he didn't stop. If he stopped, Shui would escape and that would mean the end of the world as they knew it. He couldn't stop. His body burned more and more with every stroke through the icy water. Just when he'd gotten used to feeling almost warm again, he was plunged back into the frigid water.

He saw something dark move through the water towards him. He couldn't be afraid. This wouldn't deter him. He was getting closer now. Perhaps he could still make it. He could make out the shape now; it only made him swim faster. He couldn't trust the dragon. He'd cheated once, he wasn't going to let him do it again.

"Don't mind me," he heard Shui say. "Just trying to ensure that if you do fail that you get an honorable burial. I'm resourceful, but unlike Ignatius I'm no cad." He circled around him, not coming close.

He kept swimming up, blackness began to creep in at the edges of his vision. He thought he could see the ice in the distance, but it wasn't close enough to make it. He'd let himself become distracted with the thought of having parents and lost valuable time.

He looked at Shui's grave face, the dragon didn't look happy about the idea of winning. He didn't look sad about it either, but that was the way of the ocean. A placid surface could hide the maelstrom beneath. He tried to remember what exactly he said, but it was so difficult. He was so tired and he wanted to sleep so badly. It would be so easy to just sleep now. Just give in and sleep.

What was it he said? Why couldn't he remember? It had to be important or he wouldn't need to remember it. He tried to think about it while he swam, but it wouldn't come to him.

"I almost regret this," Shui said. "You're a scrappy one. I respect that." And then it came back to him. _If you survive and bring it to me, I will give this up._

He'd certainly found the pearl and he couldn't make it to the surface. Maybe like his showdown with Dashi there was an easier solution. Maybe in this sort of situation, a shortcut was acceptable. He stopped swimming and looked Shui in the eyes. He held out his hand and his fingers unfurled slowly. The pearl sat among the sand, gleeming in the faint light.

"I see you're resourceful as well," Shui said, flicking his head. One of the seals apeared out of nowhere and gently took the pearl in its mouth. "Now, I must make good on my promise." He swam up along side Omi. "Grab my mane." The boy took the fur in his hands and the dragon started swimming.

They practically flew through the water. It flelt like silk over his skin. They broke through the surface, droplets of water flying everywhere. Floating in the middle of the sea there was a grey stone door. It opened as they pulled up alongside it and he swam through. Kimiko was standing on the other side, soot covering her entire body and a slightly dejected look on her face. He walked towards her, in great need of a hug.

**R. RE. REV. REVI. REVIE. REVIEW! Now, while you do that, I've left out a plate of christmas cookies. With any luck, you'll have another chapter up by New Years. Although I do have a hot tip on christmas related activities coming from the United Arab Emirates. **


	16. Terra Firma

**Alrighty, so more happy happy fun time. Gaia is an odd character for me to write. I always envisioned her as the leader of the dragons and sort of a group mom, so she's got some fun control issues and a couple of verbal ticks. Yay! (That makes this fun because everything you write with the word Yay! in it is instantly fun.) Anywho, I'm sorry in advance if this is a crappy chapter. This definitely wasn't my best work, but whatevs. The next one should come fairly quickly, Tempestra's character is more set than Gaia's so she's going to be much easier for me to write. Her interaction with Rai, especially in his new emo mode should be fun. **

**Spadefire: Google Translate = God. That's all I've learned from two years of French. Well, that and crepes are awesome. I always figured that it would be funny for Omi to have inadvertently picked up Portuguese obscenities from Rai. Thanks for the review and thanks for liking Shui.  
SS Mahana: Thanks for liking the dialogue. I always feel like I write too much of it. Thanks for the review!  
Irishgirl999: Thanks for the review!**

**Disclaimer: I'm heading to my other god (Hulu) now to catch up on CSI so I can let you know if the pig has left. If it's gone, then I'll be sure to own this silly show and there will be much rejoicing and Raikim and Chuya will be made canon. (Sorry to you chasekim shippers. I respect you and I'mma let you finish, like it if you want, I just don't.)**

**_Terra Firma_**

He brushed the vines out of his way, the thorns cutting even deeper into his hands, leaving blood trails on his gloves. He could see light through the vines and he could make out shapes off in the distance. There wasn't much ground left to cover, really only twenty or so feet until the clearing.

The path had become easier to follow since the last clearing. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand, it shouldn't be easy to find Gaia. She should be nearly impossible to find. On the other hand, perhaps this was a reward for picking the right path. The uncertainty that plagued him since choosing his path was perhaps more worrying than his slashed hands or his worry about the dragon. He was sure that his hands hurt, he was sure that dealing with Gaia would be difficult, he wasn't sure of whether he was even going the right way.

He cleared away the last of the vines, wincing as the thorns dug like cats' claws into his palms. He blinked as his eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight, a welcome change from the dark forest. Before him, a great circle of cobble stones glimmered in the sunlight. Twelve identical stone pillars were placed equidistant from each other around the edge of the circle, like a clock face. In the center, there was a design of four leaves, pointing north, south, east, and west. All of it in perfect symmetry.

The entire place had an odd feel to it. Perfectly still and calm, unnaturally so. Just another part of the perfect order of Gaia's realm.

He walked to the center of the circle and stood on the leaf pointing, what he was reasonably sure was, north. The path ended here, there were no more trails through the forest and the trail behind him had closed up. Perhaps he had taken the wrong path after all. He had no way of knowing.

The stones around him cast long shadows across the ground in perfect lines. It only added to the creepy aura of the entire place. In contrast to the ordered bird calls of the forest, this place was eerily silent. He shuddered to hear the plink of blood drops falling on the stones in perfect clarity.

"Now Sweetie, that won't do," a quiet, but powerful voice said from behind him. He whipped around to see Gaia moving onto the stone circle, the trees noiselessly shifting back to their former positions as she passed by. "The mess is simply intolerable."

She gave a slight shake of her head and the blood vanished from the paving stones. "There. Better. Now, I know why you're here and would like to point out that while I'm sure that the other warriors have deluded themselves into thinking that they are in the right, earth is sensible. The balance of the world was upset and thus I have the right to leave. I'm sure you see it that way."

She looked down her thick green snout at him, her emerald eyes daring him to argue with her. The dragon before him had the intimidating appearance of one used to getting their way. She was a massive creature, thick set, but not in a flabby way, but carried herself in a regal, haughty manner. Her dark green, gray, and brown mottled scales looked rough, almost a little like alligator hide, and only added to her aura of invincibility. Unlike the other dragons, she lacked wings, but it wasn't something one noticed as close to her as he was. Her long digging claws were more of a threat than the potential for flight.

"Well, actually 'mam, I wouldn't exactly come all this way to tell you that you were free to go. If that were the case, I wouldn't have showed up at all and you would be able to leave as you please," he said, slightly nervous, but trying not to show it.

"So you mean to tell me that the balance of the world was at no point in time upset?" she said, straightening up a little so that she towered over him even more.

"I suppose it was, but we got to straightenin' that out and now it's back to normal," he said, trying to show the same indomitable will she did.

"Whatever the case may be now, the fact still remains that it was out of balance before. I have the right to leave whether you want me to or not Sweetie," she said, her tone of voice indicating that she would tolerate no argument to the contrary.

"You're not leaving," he said. The dragon remained still as a statue, he could have mistaken her for another part of the scenery.

"You're just as hopelessly naive as the last one Sweetie," she said. "Unlike the others, I can hold my ground. Ignatius is easily swayed by a pretty face, Shui is held by that honor code of his, and Tempestra is the most impulsive hedonist to ever grace either this world or earth, whereas I am patient. I can wait forever for my answer, while you cannot."

"I'm sure you're mighty grateful for that mam, but I'm not entirely sure the other dragons would appreciate ya talkin' about them behind their backs," he said. "I'm not going to let you go anyway."

"Sweetie, you act like I have no respect for my team. They have their faults, but they're my family and I would be loyal to them to the end of time," she said, still sounding so sure of herself. "And would you stop making such a mess? It's like you humans never learned to appreciate order."

He glanced down to see a barely perceptible blood drop on one of the stones. As it vanished with a twitch of the dragon's claw, he couldn't help but think that she was crazier than a dog in a flea circus. This gave him an idea.

The dragon was too stubborn and proud to give in to him, and when it came to anything other than mess, she seemed very level headed. He'd found her trick. If he could unsettle her enough he might just be able to win.

"I'm mighty sorry mam," he said. "It's not polite to wear a hat or gloves in front of a lady." He proceeded to remove his hat and brushed a few leaves off of the brim.

"It's even less polite to make a mess," she said through gritted teeth. "Still, allowances shall be made. You are only human after all." The leaves were swept away deep into the forest.

"Much obliged to ya," he said, bowing his head slightly. He flinched as he slowly removed one of his gloves, spraying blood across the stones. He could see her body tense, but she didn't otherwise react.

"I'm sure you are," she said, still sounding like she was maintaining her perfect composure.

He removed the other glove, ignoring the pain. Gaia bit her lip so slightly that if you weren't looking for it you would have missed it. She still maintained her stony silence. While this was slightly aggravating, it wasn't enough to make her lose it. He made a mental note to wash his boots before stepping onto some of the blood drops and smearing them across the stones. Slight distress showed in her eyes, this wasn't enough to make her break. He'd found her trick, but she was more or less in control of it.

The air between them was thick with tension. Silent, but almost tangible. Neither one of them was willing to break, but one of them would have to. He was almost unwilling to push her that far, as uncertain as he was about how she would react. The uncertainty scared him more than the potential for her to attack him.

They were both perfectly still. He would have to do something soon or risk becoming part of the scenery. He knew her trick, but couldn't push her far enough to exploit it. He shifted his foot, further smearing blood across the stones. She acted like she hardly noticed. The stone beside him shifted slightly as he moved. Perhaps if he could disrupt the order of the clearing it might do more than merely smearing the stones.

He had to do this slowly so as not to let on what he was doing. He couldn't incite her to violence if she was still in a sane state of mind. She was much stronger than he was with an all but impenetrable hide. It would be like putting on meat pants to go to a dog show. A bad idea.

The tip of his boot slid under the wobbly stone, then when he was sure she was watching, he flipped it over, took a handful of dirt from underneath, and scattered it around the clearing.

Gaia let out a roar and lunged for him. He dodged and prepared himself for her next assault. She lunged again, the sharp clack of her claws on the stones resonating in the otherwise silent clearing. She missed, but barely. He jumped away and put himself in front of one of the pillars. Perhaps he could do to her what he did with Desmond.

She performed an almost perfect turn on the forehands and lunged again. Her flight through the air seemed almost in slow motion. Every moment seemed almost a century. He wouldn't think something built so like a brick could jump like that. Her long claws gleamed in the sunlight. He wouldn't have thought that something so closely associated with the earth would have such flawlessly clean nails, but she'd kept them perfectly manicured. Her mottled scales looked like a stone armor, but even they couldn't stop what was coming for her.

He jumped away at the last possible moment, his hat swept from his head by her claws. A great crack resounded as she crashed into the pillar. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the pillar crumble around the dragon as she made impact. He almost grinned, but before the pillar had even finished falling she was pulling herself back to her feet. Evidently she was made up of stronger stuff than your average Boston sports fan. Although his cousin Tom from Southie might have disagreed.

"Dagnabit!" he muttered, backing away slowly before she wheeled around again. The dragon leapt out of the rubble, seemingly unaffected by her blow to the head aside from some rock dust on her face.

"You're not like the other one are you?" she said, shaking stone dust from her body, seemingly unconcerned with the mess around her. She knew she could deal with that later. It would best suit her to deal with him now. "He faced me head on, didn't waste time worrying about what he didn't know, fought with honor, and proved himself worthy of mastery of the Earth." She walked towards him, her voice rumbling quiet and dangerous, almost like an earthquake. "You're more like a Wind Dragon. You fight sideways, always looking for the loophole. At least you haven't developed their taste for playing with your opponents. It was always Tempestra's greatest weakness." She sounded almost a little sad as she said this, like she did really care about the other dragon.

"But you can only fight sideways for so long. The loopholes close up on you and gravity takes hold," she said, advancing and shaking the earth with every step she took.

There was no way he could fight against her. She was bigger, stronger, faster, she could take hits that nobody else could hope to come back from, and knew how he fought better perhaps than he did. There was an odd symmetry to it though. Two predominantly defensive fighters forced into battle with each other and both of them having to turn more offensive in the melee.

He put his hand out behind him to ensure that he didn't back into the thorns. He felt the unyielding bark of one of the trees, there was no running anymore. This time when she lunged for him, he would be trapped. He felt around behind him for anything he could use to either get away or use as a weapon. There was nothing. Only the bark of the trees and the coils of the vines.

She began to advance again, fully aware that this could be her chance for a killing blow. Only this time it was a more calculated, focused, approach. There was no other way out of the situation. He couldn't go any further back and he couldn't move to the side quickly enough to avoid her. He gave the vine a tug, just to see if he could slip away into the forest, but it wouldn't give. He could theoretically go forwards, but he got the feeling that Gaia would have no problems with crushing him should he attempt to go under her.

"Like I said, you can only go sideways for so long. You eventually have to fall back down to earth," she said, her massive head less than a yard away from him. "You've put on a good show for this long though. A Dragon of the Earth shouldn't die cornered like a rat." She inclined her head slightly and the thick vines melted away. "Tell you what Sweetie, if you defeat me by sunset, I'll allow you to leave. If you don't, then I'll leave. Does that sound fair?"

"I guess so," he said, slightly shocked by her reversal of opinion.

"Good. The entire forest is fair game," she said. "Now, to give you a sporting chance, you have until I count to three. One." This probably surprised him more than anything else. He would have expected her to just end it quickly. He would leave questioning it for later though. Getting away from the dragon was his goal for now. "Two." He took off into the forest, eager not to be dragon chow. "Three."

She took off into the woods after him. Although unlike him, the trees would move out of the way for her. He kept running though, he needed to get away for long enough to think of a plan. There had to be a plan. He would come up with a plan and he would execute it and there would be no unforeseen elements and this would be over quicker than a family barbecue where Aunty Muriel decided to soak her fungus toe in the potato salad.

The sound of the dragon moving through the forest kept him on his toes. Even though the trees move out of the way for her, she still made enough noise to let him know where she was. He glanced over his shoulder, she was moving low to the ground, but moderately quickly. The distance between them was closing quickly, but he needed more time to make a plan. There had to be a plan.

He kept running, this couldn't happen like this. Gaia wasn't going to let him go. She'd given him a chance, but she wasn't stupid. She wouldn't hesitate if she got the chance.

She was slower than he thought. She could turn on a dime and move quickly over short distances, but couldn't maintain the speed. It was fast enough to keep pace with him though. Perhaps if he could use her speed as a trap. Let her catch up with him, go underneath her and strike from below. Dragons tended to be less well protected on their bellies. He deliberately slowed down and let her catch up.

He could feel her breath on the back of his neck, it smelled of pine mulch and sawdust and good soil, practically feel her claws on his back, hear the pounding of her footsteps. Just as it seemed like she couldn't possibly closer, he dropped to the ground and rolled beneath her, and tried to strike, but it turned out that her stony skin was just a thick on her chest and neck as it was on her back. She couldn't stop though and by the time she turned around, he was off again.

He just needed a little more time. Time to plan, time to remove the variables, time to find her trick. He had to put more space between him and the dragon. There were a couple of trees with low hanging branches, perhaps climbing would work. He flinched as he grabbed a hold of one of the branches, pain flashing through his entire body as his mangled hands struggled to pull him up through the foliage.

He'd gotten as high as the tree would allow, Gaia was sitting at the bottom, waiting. Like she said, she could wait forever. He only had until sunset. He wasn't sure how long that would be, but it couldn't be long. His goal was to win this decidedly one sided contest, while hers was merely not to lose. The Xiaolin warriors were never able to defeat Master Fung when he pulled a similar trick.

He couldn't think his way out of this one. She was too powerful, too clever, too strongly willed. She knew all the tricks and knew she could withstand all of them. He leaned on the tree trunk to catch his breath and better balance and tried to come up with an idea. Nothing came to him though. There was no shortcut here, no simple solution to the complex problem before him.

Glancing down, he saw her stretched out dozing like a cat, confident that he wouldn't try to come down and fully aware that if he did she would know about it. He knew she could bring the tree down if she wanted to, but it was easier to wait until sundown. It was odd, but in the green dappled sunlight, there was a patch at the base of her neck that looked almost like it was void of her alligator hide skin.

There was no solution. Perhaps it was a weak point, perhaps it was just a trick of light. There was no way to know. If he were to make a move, he would have to know for sure. He would have to know for sure. If he was wrong, she would defeat him for sure. If he was right there was a chance that it wouldn't affect her to enough of a degree to let him win. There was no way to know.

She was so sure of herself. So sure that she would win. So sure that his usual approach wouldn't work, because she knew it wouldn't. She'd removed the vines from the equation, so that wasn't an option. She could probably take running into a tree more times than he could count. She could out wait his indecisive nature.

He tapped his foot on the branch as he thought. This was just what he needed. He'd made the mistake of climbing the tree in the first place, and now he was stuck here.

He would have to make a decision soon. He didn't know how much time he had. But equally uncertain was whether or not it was an actual weak spot. There was absolutely no other choice though. She was used to his usual tactics. She could avoid almost everything and take the rest of it. He would have to face her head on. The very simplest solution, but not one that was certain to work.

He took a deep breath, then jumped. He was reasonably sure he would hit the bare patch. This probably wouldn't finish her, but it work as a preliminary strike to throw her off enough to face her head on. She wouldn't be expecting that. She thought he would fight using tricks then perhaps it would be best to use a more direct approach.

His feet struck the soft skin of the bare patch and Gaia let out a screech. The trees suddenly shot up and rocks went flying. As she reared up on her hind legs, he slid off her back and kicked her right back leg. The impact didn't have much force behind it, but it was enough to put her off balance. She fell to the ground and he barely had time to scramble away before she crushed him.

For a moment, she didn't move. Then she proved that he was right to fear the digging claws. She disappeared beneath the ground in a storm of flying dirt and stones. The forest returned to its disturbing silence and stillness. She must have known that this would unsettle him more than anything else. The uncertainty of where she would strike next. She could do anything and he wouldn't be able to defend against it.

His heart rate sped up and his breath caught in his throat, he would lose now regardless of what he did. There was no way to know where she was. No way to know how to respond. No way to plan. Nothing. He could only wait. Perhaps this wasn't a good idea though. It had gone well for him the first time when he'd attacked rather than wait for her to make a mistake. Perhaps she would still be expecting him to, as she put it, "fight sideways."

He ran over to the place where she burrowed into the earth and picked up some pebbles. He wouldn't get many shots. Perhaps only one. There was only one point on her body that was even close to vulnerable other than her back. This would be a blindingly enlightening experience for her.

He could feel a vibration in the earth coming from below him. He wouldn't have long to wait. He would just have to stay put until the last possible moment. Closer, closer, closer, until he couldn't possibly wait one more moment. The ground swelled beneath him and he used the momentum to propel himself forwards.

Gaia's head burst out of the ground, spraying the dirt everywhere. He quickly took aim at her giant emerald eye. He wished he'd paid more attention at baseball camp. This was his only shot. She wouldn't let him take another. He drew his arm back and threw the rock. For a moment it seemed to hang suspended in the air, then it smacked into her eye with a disgusting squelch.

She fell back and instinctively wiped at her face to remove the foreign object. He tried to sweep her other foreleg out from under her, but this time it wouldn't budge.

"Please Sweetie. You're tenacious, I'll give you that much, but you just can't defeat me," she said, still swiping at her eye. "I'll be damned if you can't throw though." She couldn't dislodge the pebble. "This is ridiculous." She flicked her tail and the pebble flew from her eye and hung suspended midair over her snout. "Amazing. Something so small can be so annoying."

"My family used ta say that about Daisy," he said. A cow that refused to stay in her pen.

"Yes, well, that rather hurt," she said, still blinking an uncommon amount. Her right eye was bloodshot, making it look like a disturbing Christmas ornament. "I've got to give you credit for staying with it. I think we've created enough of a mess here." For a moment, she looked like she was about to attack again, but then the tension left her body. "We're done. Consider me convinced." She stamped one of her feet and a door materialized before them.

"Much obliged to ya mam," he said, going to tip his hat, before realizing that his hat had been in fact lost in the process. She gave a wave of her claws and made a comment about how it didn't fit with her décor. A dirty, crumpled, ripped, and well-loved hat appeared before the door.

"I'm sure you are," she said, her posture returning to the haughty dignity it had before.

He picked up the hat and walked through the door. Before him, Kimiko and Omi were hugging, both of them as dirty, sweaty, and tired looking as he was. They saw him and gestured for him to come over and join in a group hug.

**So, how bad are we talking? Like THE ADVENTURES OF CHANCE YOUNG bad? Talk You Down bad? Chapter nine of The Way We Were bad? Or for some reason good? Let me know. I'm getting rather distracted as this is not written at two in the morning and I've got an history essay I'm supposed to be writing. Let me know what you think and take a complementary tea biscuit on your way out. **


	17. Storm Front

**Okay then...I apologize because this took me way too long to update. Finals plus friend drama with the winter formal kinda got in the way. I pulled straight A's on my finals though so I'm not too sorry. Plus, as it turns out, Tempestra isn't as set in my mind as I planned. I feel like she comes across as more childish than I meant her to. I'm sorry in advance if Rai just seems incredibly Emo. I'm not going to cut him any slack, but I at least prefer the non-emo Rai so be on the look out for that. ****And in other news, my running feud with the school's drama department is finally over. Half of them are suspended now and have to pay for dry cleaning. Life. Made. They ruined my favorite white shirt. It's nice to see something going right for me for once. Anywho, this chapter is long enough as it is so I'm just going to get on with it. **

**Tornadowierdo: Thanks for the review! I do try with the metaphors. :)  
Spadefire: That's what I was going for! Ass kicking trucker waitress who's able to keep the rest of these rascally dragons under (relative) control. Merci beaucoup pour le revue!  
xXxTDI AngelxXx: Thanks! Clay's so difficult for me to write so I'm always worried about people liking him. You have no idea how much that means to me. **

**Disclaimer: It's a rerun tonight, so I'm actually not watching CSI. I'm studying my physics textbook in my room while doing this. However, I am going to assume that the pig in a jar is there so I can not own this and not get sued. **

**_Storm Front_**

He coughed and sputtered as the deluge stopped, leaving him in a pool of water unknowably far down in the cave. He dragged himself to his hands and knees and spat out more water. His arms shook, whether it was from the cold of the water or exhaustion he wouldn't know. He managed to drag himself to the dry part of the cave floor before collapsing to the ground again.

He's spent what felt like an eternity fighting to keep his head above water, unable to really fight the current, thrown against the coarse walls of the cave. The gashes and scrapes across his body oozed blood into the water and the water was not cold enough to numb him from the pain. As he lay on the damp stone floor of the cave, he didn't struggle for air, but still he could feel every rattling, heaving breath he took. He felt the dampness of the cave floor permeating his skin through his torn clothing.

Through his half-closed eyes, strange purple light filtered through crystals in the walls, ceiling, and floor of the cave. He'd noticed it earlier in the water. It'd given it an eerie otherworldliness. The rest of the cave was otherwise non-descript, grey stone and dripping stalactites, all blending into a purple haze.

He regretted solving the riddle now. Even standing around the cave would have been better than this. Now, he was stuck at an unknown destination and completely otherwise lost. This was because he'd made an impulsive decision without considering the consequences. Because of him, the entire mission would fail. Because he was stuck in this cave, Tempestra would be able to break free of the forces that kept her here. A dragon with wind powers and little concern for human life would be free to wreak havoc to her heart's content in their world.

It wasn't like he could have stopped her to begin with. Minerva had even said that he didn't stand a chance against the dragon. This was an immortal being with wind powers. He was a boy who couldn't even protect his own team without relying on the very people he was trying to protect them from.

He took a few deep breaths and clenched his eyes shut. The heaving of his chest synchronized to the slow beat of his heart. There was a part of him that knew that there had to be some way out of this, but he couldn't think of it. He had no way to now where he was and how to avoid doing something so stupid again.

Then he remembered something else Minerva said. _"__"There was this moron once. He was so sure of himself he once ambushed me in order to prove me wrong. If you can find him, then we have a chance against Tempestra."_ Someone had come before him. Someone who wasn't a total screw-up. Someone with the power to defeat Tempestra. All he needed to do was find them. Inspired with this knowledge, he tried to drag himself to his feet, but he hadn't even begun to straighten his legs when they gave out beneath him.

His head struck the rough stones hard new wounds opened across his face and his burn scar blazed with pain. His chest pressed against the ragged, damp stone, the sharp bits cutting into his already raw skin with every labored breath. He sighed d closed his eyes again, eager to shut out, but at the same time accepting, his failure.

He no longer knew why he was trying. Everything he did only served to make the situation worse. He wasn't strong enough for this. He was a weak-willed failure of a leader. The world would fall to darkness and it would be his fault. Tempestra would destroy him on his own.

He couldn't find whoever it was he was supposed to find. He didn't know who it was to begin with, only that they had what it took to restrain an immortal dragon and mistress of the winds, and even if he did, he didn't even know where to start looking. Even if he did that, he was still stuck in this damned cave through his own stupidity and impulsiveness.

The purple light flooded his eyes as he half-opened them again. The crystals emitting said light almost seemed like they stuck out from the wall a bit .He limply raised his arm at the wall. He scraped his fingers along the wall, they caught on one of the crystals. He rolled to his side and reached for the stone with his other hand. It was large and rough enough to give him a decent handhold.

Water dripped down his face from both the stalactites and his soaked hair as he pulled himself up. His body shook with every ragged breath, but so long as he was leaning on the wall he didn't fall. He started to walk further into the cave, it wasn't going to do anything, but it made him feel a bit better to at least try.

Every step seemed to take an eternity and more strength than he thought he had. He kept going though. It was better than lying there like an invalid.

The cave was utterly silent, aside from the occasional startling plink of falling water and the quiet splash of his footsteps and the irregular spacing of the light crystals threw sinister shadows across the cavern. He stopped to catch his breath for a moment, unaware of anything other than his battered, tired body and the almost perfect silence surrounding him, when he heard a noise. It started out quiet, almost indiscernible, certainly unintelligible, but built to a mocking crescendo. Laughter. Hannibal Roy Bean's unmistakable laughter. Just like when the demon invaded his mind.

He whipped around and barely caught himself before falling. "Who's there?" he said, trying to sound as confident as possible. He couldn't hide the catch in his voice though, his fear and uncertainty breaking through. The laughter died down and with trepidation, he continued down the tunnel, slower, more attentive, and somehow even less confident than before.

He wouldn't let his mind or Tempestra play tricks on him. He'd only imagined Hannibal's mocking laughter. That or Tempestra was messing with his head.

Then he heard it again. It was different this time, more playful, more feminine, and certainly unlike Hannibal's. He put his back against the wall again, if there was anything there with him, it wouldn't take him by surprise. The laughter continued to grow and build until there was no way to ignore it. He put one of his hands over his ear to try to shut it out, but it didn't work. If he took the other one off the wall, he'd fall back down again. Then just as suddenly as it started, it stopped.

It was dead silent now, not even the sound of the dripping water remained. His heart beat a wild tattoo of fear into his ribs. He remained motionless against the wall for an unknowable amount of time. His breathing steadied more and more the longer he waited until he no longer felt the surge of adrenaline. He let out a long sighing breath and brushed some of the wet hair out of his face. It appeared that he was going to be fine.

"Boo," a voice from right next to him said. He leapt across the cave, his hair standing on end and his heart racing again. He slipped to the ground without the wall to support him and when he looked up in fear, his heart sank.

A grey dragon, probably only slightly bigger than Min, was lying contentedly on the ceiling of the cave as if it were a comfortable bed. Her mismatched eyes gleamed with mirth even in the darkness. Her finely built head sat on the wall just next to where he assumed his head would have been. Her laugh filled the small space just as it had before. He'd found Tempestra, but he hadn't found whoever it was he needed to find in time. She was going to escape.

"You should have seen your face!" she said, wiping a tear of laughter away from her eye with a refined claw. "Really. It was just priceless." Her sharp, fine teeth flashed in the purple light as she laughed. "I like you better than the last one."

"What the hell?" he said, his eyes wide and his voice shooting through an octave. He tried to scramble back to his feet, earning more laughter.

"Nope. The light's all wrong for hell," she said. "This is much too pretty. If I were designing a hell, I'd pick a boring color. Like taupe or cement gray." She sounded like she was easy to distract. "Purple's just too pretty for hell."

"What do you want?" he said, sliding to a sitting position. Her eyes glittered with amusement.

"What do you think?" she asked, still defying all laws of physics by lying on the ceiling.

"I can't read minds," he said, trying to keep as much of the fear from his voice as he answered. It was painfully obvious though.

"You're no fun. You have to guess," she said. Her voice was mid-range, high enough to be playful, but at the same time low enough to be properly threatening.

"If I say no?" he asked.

"Then I'll finally get a small spot of excitement in this endless sea of tedium," she said, her needlepoint teeth flashing again as she grinned. For a while, they were engaged in a staring contest, but he broke first.

"You want to leave," he said, his voice weak with shame. He couldn't even win so simple a battle as this.

"Exactly," she said in a singsong voice, crawling down to the floor. "And you're going to let me go."

"No, I'm not," he said. Even he didn't believe himself as he said this. He wouldn't be able to fight against her. He was too tired and too weak-willed to defeat her.

"Of course you're not. Dragons such as you and I need a will like a force of nature to rein in the winds and bend them to your will," she said, still grinning. He didn't get it. He knew that Tempestra knew he wasn't alright to fight her. "I'll play you for it though."

"Play me?" he asked, dragging himself to his feet with the support of the wall.

"Three games. I choose the first, you the second, and I'll choose the third. If you win two out of three I'll stay here," she said. "This is a bit claustrophobic isn't it?" While the cave had plenty of space for him on his own, with a dragon it was a bit cramped. "I'd appreciate a much more open space."

She spread her storm gray wings and flew up through the ceiling as if it were naught but mist. He found himself rising off the floor and through the ceiling. He wrapped his arms around his head to brace for impact as he didn't trust the dragon not to crush him against the rocks. He was surprised to find himself flying through the gray stone and crystals. It was a disquieting feeling. Unlike the Serpent's Tail, he could actually feel the rock going through him.

He'd closed eyes during the ascent, but as soon as it stopped he opened them. He found himself on a large, flat mountain top, surrounded on three sides by massive rock out crops and the last one a sheer drop. Needless to say, in accordance with Murphy's Law, the wind was blowing from the unprotected direction.

Up here, the skies were still clouded, but there was no rain and it no longer smelled of ozone, although he could still see the top of the ladder on the exposed side and it was still clearly still very electrified.

Now that they were out of the strangely lit cave, he could get a better look at her. She had a very light build with sharp, angled features. Like in the illustration, her scales started a very dark grey at her feet and gradually lightened to a silver gray on her back. Her feathery wings remained a sort of in between storm gray. Her mismatched purple and silver gray eyes added to her expression of bemusement.

"You know, I was really quite confused when you didn't use that ladder. It just gives you a little shock when you first touch it and then you're fine," she said, upon seeing where he was looking. "The last one flat out refused to go through the water." So the supposedly fearless person he was supposedly looking for was afraid of water. Strange, but it made more sense than squirrels.

"Let's just get this over with," he said, weakly dragging himself back to his knees.

"What?" she asked, tilting her head to the side, her purple eye shifting to emerald green. "Oh right. I'm finally going to get back into the real world. Thanks for that by the way."

"You're not," he muttered halfheartedly.

"I am. I just want to have some fun first," she said, grinning broadly. "Now, this won't be any fun unless we're both in top condition so…" He felt a jolt of magic and the scene around him changed to one resembling a hospital ER, complete with a scrubs clad draconian surgeon. "Paddles! Stat!" A pair of paddles appeared in her safety gloved claws and shocked him. The pain and exhaustion left his body as the scene dissolved back into the plateau.

"Thanks," he said, thinking that this dragon might just be crazy.

The dragon paced the edge of the stone walls with the balance of a gymnast, thinking about something. "We'll start with two truths and a lie. You're up first. Have a seat." An opulent armchair made of bright blue clouds appeared behind him and he was swept off his feet into its soft embrace.

He didn't know what to say. He generally considered himself a pretty good liar, but he was going up against an omnipotent dragon who would probably have no issues with mind reading. He'd try to keep it simple. The best lies were the ones that were so trivial nobody would bother to find out.

"My middle name is Carlos, I'm afraid of jellyfish," he paused here just long enough to make her think he was coming up with a lie. "and I am in love with the Dragon of Fire." His middle name was actually Enrique, but again it was the sort of thing that nobody actually noticed or really cared about. Plus, she'd never met him before now. She had no reason to know it.

"I like fluffy things, I dislike you, the latter statement is false," she said. She was aiming to confuse him. The first one had to be true as the way they were worded left no option but having one of the second statements be false. She obviously disliked him, but that seemed a bit too explicate. It could have gone either way. A fifty-fifty chance he couldn't make. He'd already failed once. He had to at least try, even if there was no chance he could defeat Tempestra.

"The latter statement is not false," he said. He was here to keep her imprisoned. It stood to reason that she would greatly dislike him.

"Nope. You're much more fun than the last one. Although you're a much worse liar. I picked you for these powers. I think I know your middle name's Esteban," she said, a cocky smirk plastered to her face.

"Enrique," he corrected.

"Whatever," she said, her green eye shifting to blue-gray. "Your turn to pick."

This would have to be something he could win. He'd already blown the first contest, although he honestly hadn't expected to win in the first place. He already knew that she had problems with focus and could be very easily distracted.

"Chess," he said. If that didn't require more focus than he thought she had then he didn't know what did.

"Alright then," she said, the plateau around them changing into a giant chessboard, complete with massive, intricately carved pieces that looked disturbingly like people. "White goes first," she said. It appeared that he was going to start off.

"Pawn to d4," he said, the foot soldier picked up their sword and moved to the indicated square.

"Pawn to d5," she said, her pawn making identical motions.

"Pawn to c4," he said.

"I'm sorry. Your queen's gambit has been denied. Knight to f6," she said, the horse and rider leapt over the head of the pawn in front of them and performing a flawless turn on the forehands to get to their space.

As the game went on, he realized that she could focus and when she did she was a brilliant strategist, although she had tunnel vision. She would often ignore the larger implications of losing a bishop or other such piece for the short term benefit of taking a pawn. She didn't see the entire board. That's what led him to victory.

She took a bishop one night's move away from her own king with a rook. "Check," she said, her eye shifting back to purple upon seeing his king in danger from her tower.

He was quiet for a while, making a good show of thinking about how he was going to get out of this when, in fact, she'd played right into his hands.

It felt strange to him to actually be winning, to finally do something right after screwing up all the time. He would never have gotten out of the cave without Tempestra's help and he'd badly messed up the first "game" so this was at least slightly redemptive. This was the first thing he'd done right in months. Months of deals with Chase, months of bottling up his powers, months of letting his team get into danger. This was his chance at a start of redemption.

"Mate," he said, using his knight to take the rook, and thereby putting the king into an inescapable check. For a moment, she looked absolutely incredulous, as in flip the board incredulous.

"Fine," she said, standing disturbingly still and her eye changing to a cool blue-gray. The air around them had been lively and filled with spirited updrafts and gusts, whereas now it was like the calm before the storm. He shrunk back a few steps under her frigid gaze, but she made no move to pursue.

"Third contest is a race, one mountain top to the next," She said her, what passed off as, composure returning with a playful breeze. "In the spirit of fair play, I'll return your powers." Wild winds whirled around him, terrifying him as his body turned translucent silver for one heart wrenching moment.

"So just this last thing?" he said, waiting for his racing heart to return to normal speed.

"Yes. Then I leave. And then I turn the clouds in your world polka dotted," she said, the blue eye turning purple again. She spread her long feathered wings, said "ready, set, go," and flew off. The mountain top beneath him disappeared and for one moment, seeming long as eternity, he hung suspended midair. Then he realized that the dragon wasn't lying when she said she returned his powers.

He started to fly after her, but the head start she'd already gotten was considerable. She wasn't fast though. She kept flying barrel rolls and loops as if she had all the time in the world. He wasn't pushing acceleration and he was already catching up.

He drew level to her and was eternally grateful that her top speed didn't require that he push his limits. He couldn't lose control here. He could doom the world if he did. He wasn't going to take any chances. He'd already screwed this up enough. This had to be perfect.

One of the feathers from the tips of her wings brushed his nose as he caught up. As he caught up, he kept thinking that he couldn't afford a mistake. He was enough of a screw up as a leader. His arrogance in the showdowns couldn't happen again.

When he came up to her head, they were level for a while. Then he passed her. He couldn't believe it. He was in the lead. He was going faster than the wind, without even really trying. Perhaps he could win this after all. Perhaps he could win this.

Wind rushed over his body, caressing his face and tousling his hair. He could barely remember the last time he genuinely enjoyed flight. Actually, he could. He just preferred to pretend that the flight to Chase's lair had never happened. That he'd never felt like a god. If this was what the dragon felt all the time, perhaps her giggly nature could perhaps be forgiven.

Just has he felt a grin coming to his face and the slightest peal of laughter escaped his lips, she closed the gap. He glanced at her for a moment. The gleam in her silver eye and the slight curl of her lips told him all he needed to know. She'd been playing with him.

Arrogance had yet again held sway in his life. He'd been a fool to assume he could be swift as the wind. Her taunting laughter rang in his ears as she flew in front of him. She was so close he could almost touch the rough, storm gray scales of her tail. Close enough to taunt. Close enough to catch her if he could go just a little faster. He couldn't do that though.

Top speed wasn't something he could change, nor was controllability. He was at the limit of both now and it wasn't enough. Once, he could go faster, but he'd lost it when he'd lost control. This wasn't nearly the sort of flight he could have had before. He'd messed up and the barriers he was fighting were put up in retaliation.

There was a large part of him that didn't want them to come down though. The last time that happened, he'd become a monster. A monster that thought he was king of the winds. In reality, he'd been naught but a fool. An arrogant fool.

He hadn't realized that he'd begun to fall. The powers which had once seemed uncontrollably strong were beginning to fail him in the worst possible way. It was gradual at first, falling further and further behind the dragon. While she was eager to taunt him with how close he was to, yet so far from, victory, she wasn't going to bother if he wasn't going to give her a good chase. Then he noticed how the lower clouds rushed up to meet him.

Perhaps it was because the dragon had lied, perhaps it was because he was a failure, but he was falling through the sky. When he noticed this, his mouth shot open to scream, but the words were whisked away on the wind. With every second, he came closer and closer to ground that he had never seen.

When he'd first gotten here, he'd flown up for more time than he'd cared to think of. Almost three days of flight, followed by however much he'd been brought up through the tunnel and the stone. He didn't know how far up the mountain he'd been to start with. He could fall for forever and never stop.

It wouldn't matter though because the dragon would win. He would doom the world because he hadn't been fast enough. He had let his arrogance get the better of him. He'd strayed from his charge. He couldn't do this, so he was supposed to find someone else to do it. He hadn't even been able to do that. Something so simple that he shouldn't have forgotten, but he had.

He tried to summon a wind to help him, but nothing came, not even the faintest breeze. It was hopeless. He'd failed. He'd failed Omi, Clay, and Kimiko. They'd probably already sorted out their dragons without problems. He'd failed Master Fung, Dojo, and Master Monk Guan. They put so much faith in him and he'd showed them exactly what he could do as a leader. He'd proven Minerva right. He'd never had a chance. Nothing to do now but accept his failure with honor and give himself up to the air.

"_Ai. Why don't you get a nice bottle of black dye and razor and start taking make up lessons from Jack? You know, complete the look," _a voice in his head said. His eyes jerked open and he saw a transparent version of himself lying back on a cloud, gliding down with him. Great. Now he was having hallucinations.

"_Seriously. I expected at least one emo poem. Please? Just a short one? A limerick about how your soul is a dark storm that will never see the sun? There once was a storm off Nantucket…"_ he said, cutting off just where one would typically include a dirty rhyme with a cocked eyebrow and self-satisfied smirk.

"What do you want?" he tried to say, but again, the words were snatched away.

"_I don't know. Maybe it's the whole "oh woe is me" routine you're pulling," _he said, rolling his eyes. _"It's kinda counterproductive you know."_

"It doesn't matter," he mouthed. "I was never meant to defeat her."

"_What?"_ the hallucination laughed. _"You mean you're really listening to that old feather duster? When have you ever done that?"_

"Well she's right. She's always right," he thought, making eye contact with his double and daring him to argue. He noticed that this version of him lacked the burn scar on his jaw. It was him before he'd gone crazy. An inexperienced, arrogant idiot.

"_Oh now there's no need for harsh language,"_ the other him said, rolling his eyes at him. _"Just wondering though. Would you like to see the look on her face when she knows that she's wrong?"_ He nodded as well as he could against the G force. _"Well that's just too bad because you're a failure."_ It was one thing to hear it from himself. It was another to hear it from someone else. Even if it was him.

"No. You are. You let power go to your head and almost destroyed the world," he thought, putting every ounce of venom he had into the words.

"_I did what I had to do and I would do it ten thousand times again. Without that power, Chase would have been unstoppable and Kimiko would be powerless. If you want to wallow in self-pity feel free. Let the world fall because you couldn't get out of your own way,"_ he said, shrugging and reclining on his cloud.

"I almost killed her because of the power and it failed me when I needed it most," he spat. Or at least he would have if he could talk. He could feel a familiar pressure of anger building behind his eyes. He had no idea he was so annoying. Other him was an inexperienced asshole.

"_Please. Without them she'd probably be dead at the claws of either Chase, Wuya, or one of the cats. And remind me, did they fail you?"_ he asked, a taunting smirk on his face._ "Or did you fail them?" _Then he snapped. He rolled over midair and lashed out at the moron he once was. Even though he hadn't touched the boy, he was forced off his cloud by a great force.

The rush of wind hadn't stopped, but it felt different now. Surrounding him and bearing him up rather than a rush going by him as he fell. "Asshole say what?" he said, glaring at his hallucination. His chest heaved and his hair whipped around him in the breeze, but he didn't really notice. This was an opportunity to show a douchebag who was boss.

"_Oh come on man. We're way too good to fall for that,"_ he said, vanishing with a self-confident smile. _"And although we're a grammar nightmare, I guess we're not a hugely incompetent idiot." _Suddenly, the second half of Minerva's words came to mind.

"_If you can't figure out who that moron I was talking about is, then you're a bigger idiot than I think you are. And I think you're a hugely incompetent idiot." _Could it be that he had never had to find someone else? Could it be that he had, in fact, lost himself? Perhaps he was right. Perhaps he had spent too much time wallowing in his own pity.

Without noticing, the winds swirling around him were making him rise again. Perhaps he'd never lost his powers in the first place. His own insecurities had made him lose them. Maybe he still had a shot at this. He concentrated and the winds drove him up and forwards. He didn't know how long he'd been falling for or how far he'd fallen, but he had to at least try to catch up.

He hit what he'd previously thought was the upper limits of his speed. For a moment, he worried about the silver, but he forced it down. He couldn't afford to fall again. He would have all the time in the world to question his actions later. Screw the rules, he had wind powers.

He took a deep breath, then accelerated. Contrary to his belief, he'd been the one to put up the barriers, not some mystical force. He would be the one to take them down. The mental blocks came down as he accelerated, but he didn't lose control.

After a while, he saw a dark speck in the distance. It grew and grew until he could make out the outlines of Tempestra's body. A darker form was on the horizon beyond that though. The mountain top they were racing for.

The worry and nerves never fully left as he continued to go faster. He didn't think they ever would leave, but they were manageable. He came up close to the dragon again, she was still doing aerial stunts without a care in the world. One last burst of speed and he'd passed her. The look of shock on her face as he flew past was at the same time both supremely satisfying and terrifying.

It was just a few more yards to the mountain top, but he couldn't afford to let up now. The dragon ruled the wind, the element of surprise so late in the contest was all he had to give him an edge now.

The joy swelling in his chest as his feet touched down on the mountain top mere seconds before the dragon's was released in a great cheer. "Two point five from the Russian judge," she said as he caught his breath. "I really am sorry to see you go." A door emerged from a particularly low hanging cloud and just before he stepped through, she said, "Oh, Raimundo."

He tore his eyes away from the group hug between his friends and glanced back at her for a moment. She leapt off the cliff face and flew parallel to the mountain. She accelerated and within moments, he heard it. A great crack indicating that she had, in fact, passed the sound barrier. She landed and the smile on her face and her peals of laughter told him all he needed to know.

He stepped through the door and numbly shut it behind him. He sank down against the creamy stone of the door, more confused than ever. As his friends rushed over to see if he was alright, he had only four whispered words. "She let me win."

**Alright then. I'm ready to write more and do crap loads of Raikim in the chapter after next. The next one's basically already written and pretty much just follows the questionably unfortunate antics that ensued with the others while our wonderful dragons were in the spirit realm. Let me know what you think of this one and I'll leave out Vanilla Instant Coffee (AKA God) and some lemon ginger cookies (AKA the other god that is not HULU or Sparknotes or Google Translate). **


	18. Lockpick

**El Gaspo! What is this? Me updating when I say I will? What is this nonsense? That is like the highest grade of nonsense I've ever seen nonsensed and I've seen some serious nonsense. Alrighty then, so I'm sorry if this is sort of OOC, but I didn't think I could write it from Dojo's POV and I really don't want to write from Min's unless I can help it, s****o instead you get Guan written by a teenage girl. Happy Happy Fun Time. Anywho, no major occurances in my life to vent about so let's get this movie on the street. **

**Keiriala: Thanks for the review! And what is this blasphemy about characters having self esteem? That's not in my FF author's guidebook...Oh wait. There it is. Appendix C, Section 8, Subsection Nail Polish Remover...Oh...I feel silly now. **

**xXxTDI AngelxXx: Thanks for the review! LOL thanks for liking Tempy. I was afraid people would dislike her. **

**Spadey: That's what I aim for. Making people smile. Yes I did totes borrow that from you. It was too awesome to pass up. Thanks for the review!**

**Disclaimer: I'm already doing a CSI joke this chapter. And Castle. And Homestuck. And Firefly. I'm going to make this boring and say that I own nothing. **

**_Lockpick_**

It was strangely still and quiet in the common room that day. Dojo was preoccupied with a puzzle, Minerva was gradually working her way through a stack of mystery novels, and he'd attempted to get a day of peaceful meditation. Of course, given just how on edge he'd been over the past couple of days, he was fighting a losing battle.

He tried to concentrate on emptying his mind, but today it would not take. The young monks should have been back by now. It should have been a simple task. They'd deliberately overprepared the young dragons, they were supposed to go in, just say no, get out, and go home. It wasn't like they were going in for their secondary elements and would have to actually fight the dragons. With this in mind, tensions were running high in the suite today.

It was Min's lack of reaction to losing her powers that scared him more than anything. He and Dojo had gone with her like she asked, although he doubted that they were needed, she treated it all like it were a minor inconvenience, like a longer than usual line at a coffee shop. While they waited for her at the facility, one of the technicians warned them that people who lose their powers are highly prone to severe depression, bouts of rage, changes in personality, wild mood swings, and general insanity.

In contrast to this, she was her normal arrogant, manipulative, too clever by half self. She was even using her situation to her advantage, mainly exclusive tables at popular restaurants for her and her various dates and, from what he could tell, screwing around with magical politics.

Aside from worrying about her snapping and worrying about the Xiaolin Dragons, it actually hadn't been a bad week and a half. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had a vacation and this was a rather pleasant one. He'd gotten a chance to catch up with some old friends and the gardens were wonderful for both walks and meditation. He'd even indulged in a Mah Jong tournament. He hadn't won, but it was the spirit of the game that mattered.

Dojo hadn't stopped worrying about the kids. The majority of his time was spent at the dimensional door and whenever he was back at the suite, he spent it either worrying or taking potshots at Minerva because they hadn't yet seen the original documents. This one of the first days he'd had something with even the semblance of calm. The chewed edges of a few of the puzzle pieces told a different story though.

Every now and then Kimiko's phone would ring, making both him and Dojo lunge for it. However, Min had commandeered it for compulsive organizing her life and half the time it was for her. The other half it was Keiko texting about whatever it was Keiko texted Kimiko about. It was frustrating, but he couldn't leave the suite without worrying about either Min or Dojo finally losing it.

He thought that maybe another location would help. Sitting by the fountain hadn't worked. Perhaps the balcony would be better. He just got up to move, when Moves like Jagger began to play. This time, the immortal got to the phone first.

"I don't know how you got this number, but if Alex gave it to you tell him we are off for tonight and if it was Draco, then I just want to say I am so sorry for the prior statement and thank you for the opportunity to interview for the position," she said. Just as he and Dojo were losing interest in her career, she said, "Oh. Never mind then. It's for you boys. Something about the brats."

He wasn't entirely sure he remembered Dojo jumping for the phone, just the dragon snagging the phone from a very shocked looking immortal and babbling into the mouthpiece. When it became clear that the dragon wouldn't be able to communicate with the other end, he decided that it would probably be best if he answered.

After prying Dojo's claws from the pink phone one by one, he said, "Hello, this is Master Monk Guan. I apologize on behalf of my colleagues for their behavior." He almost didn't want to hear what they had to say. Ten thousand worst case scenarios played through his head as he awaited the caller's response.

"It's no problem really. I get that it's kinda stressful for you guys right now," a familiar friendly voice said. The Council really had Gerry earning his paycheck this month. "I'm just letting you know the Dragons are finished with their quest."

"Thank you for your consideration," he replied, while prying Dojo away from the earpiece. "If you excuse me, I believe it would be best to collect them now."

"Probably. They're probably going to need a break from the whole world saving thing," he said. "Well, see you guys when I see you." They both hung up and he and Dojo started for the door before realizing that the immortal wasn't following.

"You're a part of the temple now. You need to be there for them," he said, turning back to the woman draped over the armchair as if it were a throne.

"I need to read about how Criminal Science Interrogator Vantas finds the embalming fluid that leads him to the pig, that leads him to criminal master mind Gil who's in cahoots with Rick Reynolds, the corrupt DA and his totally-not-a-girlfriend's boss," she said, rolling her eyes and back at her book.

"You're on the first chapter. You don't know that," Dojo said, snagging the book from her and dragging her towards the door. Even though the dragon didn't want her to be around them, it was better than leaving her here.

"Mystery novels are easy. You just need to look for the foreshadowing. Plus, the author's been teasing most of this since the last book in the series," she said, reluctantly following them through the compound.

By the time they got to the room, Dojo had calmed down considerably to the point where he could be mistaken for a sane dragon. That went out the window as soon as they went in and saw the young monks. Omi, Clay, and Kimiko were circled around the door, with expressions in equal measure of exhaustion and concern for the boy slumped against the stone frame. Upon seeing the three of them, they all snapped to attention, including Bobo.

"I trust you were successful," he said, barely containing his pride as Dojo was doing that well enough for all three of them. With his scurrying about and making sure that they were all one hundred and ten percent alive, the dragon almost reminded him of his own mother.

"There was a question of that?" Raimundo said. Unlike the others, he didn't look quite so worn down. In fact, there was a sort of energy about him that had gone unseen for over a month. "By the way Birdy, thanks for believing in me."

"I did nothing of the sort. I told you to find Fredrick Jacobson. He still owes me fifty quid," she said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. "I didn't think it was possible for me to think of you as _more_ of an idiot." He knew she wasn't totally serious, she just didn't want to admit that she was in her own strange way almost proud of Raimundo. Almost.

The rest of them just laughed off her comment and started for the suite. When they got back, they found the original copies of the paperwork on the coffee table. It all checked out until they got to the number of people entering and the names. According to the paper work, five went into the spirit realm. Five including one Hannibal Roy Bean.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

"Alright, you've had your games," he said, sidling up to the stormy gray dragon and twirling the black glass ring on a vine. He gave a bit of a laugh as she moved away from him. This was too easy. Sneak in on the boy's backpack, check. Offer services to impulsive dragon, check. Release dragons and wreak havoc on the world, about to be check. "Ya ready for some real fun?"

She nodded and he cried out, "Ring of Isildur." The cloud door before them swung open, revealing an empty cream colored room. It didn't take long for the dragon to take her chance at freedom.

_**X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X**_

Just as she was about to dismiss it, the stone door swung open again. Perhaps the Dragon of the Earth recognized her right to leave. Probably not though. Once Earth dragons made a decision, they stuck with it. She wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth though.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

Before he dove, the ice door rose from the depths again, sending a spray of frigid water every which way. As he slid through the door, he wondered just what sort of idiot said that water never returned to its source.

**_X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X_**

He stretched his wings in the desert sunset and for one brief moment, looked back at the door. For some strange reason, it stood open. He wheeled on his front feet and thought of naught but sunlight as he lunged through the opening.

**Alrighty then, I kind of want to get to bed, but whatevs. I've got lemon Sanpelligrino (awesome Italian soda. Legit, if it weren't for vanilla instant coffee, it would be my favorite drink) and raspberry bars for the reviewers. :)**


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